An Interesting Turn of Events
by KRJ0792XX1
Summary: Life is funny sometimes, but Harry Potter doesn't think so. What starts off as a nasty breakup between himself and his girlfriend, turns out to be an interesting turn in his life. Or is it? M rating is for swearing, implied situations, and violence.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** This story is 100% alternate universe and most, if not all, of the characters in this story are out of character as well. Also I don't own anything by J.K. Rowling and I am not trying to steal her characters, plots, or moments within the books that she has written. This is my own story and I also claim to not copy off of anyone else's work either in the process.

 **Summary:** Life is funny sometimes, but Harry Potter doesn't think so. What starts off as a nasty breakup between himself and his girlfriend, turns out to be an interesting turn in his life. Or is it? M rating is for swearing, implied situations, and violence.

 **Chapter 1**

"YOU'RE WHAT?" A young man yelled towards his girlfriend. The guy was extremely angry after he heard the disturbing news that his significant other had told him.

"I'm pregnant, Harry! How hard is that to understand?" The girlfriend said.

"I heard that you're pregnant, Hermione, but what I don't understand is HOW you're pregnant."

"It's not that hard to figure out, Harry. Obviously, I had an affair and the father-to-be got me pregnant."

"How far along are you?"

"Not that far. I'm not even a month into the pregnancy yet."

"How long have you been seeing him?"

"It's none of your business Harry! Why does that matter to you anyway?"

"It is my business, Hermione! You could at least do the decent thing and tell me how long you've been cheating on me behind my back!"

"Well since you asked SO NICELY," Harry shot her a snide look at that comment. "it's been about six months."

"SIX MONTHS? YOU'VE BEEN CHEATING ON ME FOR SIX MONTHS?!"

"Oh don't be so dramatic, Harry. You act all tough, but we both know you won't do anything. You'll just get mad and then eventually go back to normal. Besides, It's not like you didn't see this coming. The signs were all there!" Hermione sneered at him.

"SEE WHAT COMING? How could I have possibly known? Have I not been faithful to you, Hermione? I supported all your decisions, helped you get your dream job, and helped you find your parents when they went missing! Why would you betray me like this? Tell me what I did wrong!" The young man shouted at his recent ex-girlfriend. It wasn't nearly as loud as before, but it wouldn't be long before he became extremely mad once again.

Hermione didn't say anything for a few minutes. During said time, Harry became increasingly angry with each passing moment. He started yelling at her and shouted profanities, but eventually, Hermione decided she had had enough. She walked up to her now ex-boyfriend and slapped him hard in the face. Harry stumbled a few feet back and nearly fell over thanks to the power of the physical contact. A few seconds went by and the distinct outline of a palm print was shown on his face.

"Now if you'll PLEASE stop shouting and just listen to me?" Hermione asked as she attempted to control herself. When Harry nodded, she continued.

"Once upon a time, Harry, you were the man I fell in love with, but you are not that person anymore. Over the past year, you have constantly been at work, or been with your friends, instead of spending time with me. When we were at Hogwarts, you were attentive, caring, and completely devoted to our relationship."

"Yeah and look where that got me." Hermione sneered at his comment but continued.

"When you told me you loved me after Christmas, I was in heaven. I knew we would marry someday. We moved in together two months after graduation and everything was perfect. Then not long after, you changed. I was against you becoming an Auror from the start, but you refused. You stopped being attentive. You stopped giving me a reason to believe you, because you always came home late. And since we haven't been intimate for so long, I went looking for some pleasure from someone else. He may not know me as well as you do, but he's TWICE the man you are Harry James Potter!"

"How dare you, Hermione. First of all, most of what you said was a lie! YES I did tell you I loved you, and YES I did want us to move in together, but you have your facts wrong on everything else. I didn't change. You did! I told you from the beginning that I wanted to be an Auror, because my godfather was one. I wanted to be just like him! You never told me you were against it at all! Secondly, I never stopped being attentive or caring. I was always here, but you would come home late without ever having any reasonable explanation. I let it go at first, but it became frequent, and after a while I figured out what you were doing. I decided to wait for you to come clean, but you never did! And lastly, I would have been intimate with you had you been home in the first place! So don't tell me you were lacking in a sex life, Hermione, you were just getting it on the side with SOMEONE ELSE!"

"Fuck you, Harry! I clearly made a mistake being in a relationship with you at all! You'll never see what kind of person you've become because your head is so far up your own ASS!" Hermione said as she began walking away from the living room. As she climbed the stairs and began packing her clothes to leave, Harry stormed after her.

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING? WE ARE NOT DONE HERE, HERMIONE!"

"YES WE ARE, HARRY!"

"NO WE AREN'T!"

"SHUT UP, HARRY! JUST SHUT UP AND STOP YELLING!"

"I'LL FUCKING YELL IF I WANT TO YOU UNBELIEVABLE BITCH!"

Hermione decided to stop her packing and head out of her room with a look of pure hatred on her face. She went to her ex and slapped Harry one more time. This time the slap caused him to fall backwards down the stairs. He wasn't too hurt, but it sure did feel painful. As his head stopped spinning, Hermione came down the stairs with a luggage case in her hand.

"Don't you ever call me a bitch, Harry Potter! I can see that you are too immature to take this news, and since you're blinded by rage, you won't bother listening to reason. Im leaving you. I'll send for my things. Don't even try to burn them. I put a charm on everything." Hermione gloated.

"Wait!" Harry pleaded as she stopped on the stairs. "Who is he?" Hermione didn't say anything.

"WHO IS HE, HERMIONE?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and sighed before she turned back to face her ex. The girl looked into his eyes and saw nothing but anger, not that she could blame him of course. She sighed once more before answering.

"I think you know who the father is, Harry. I know you're a dense moron sometimes, but even you can figure this out." She said as calmly as possible.

Harry really hoped Hermione wasn't talking about the one person who annoyed him more than anything, but he was almost positive at this point that it was him. Harry was going to have a talk with him soon, but right now he went back to focusing on Hermione.

"Did you ever regret it, Hermione?" Harry asked with some sadness in his voice.

Hermione paused. She was certainly not expecting this question and it absolutely threw her off. She was quite torn on the subject. Did she really care for Harry? Sure she did. But in her mind, Harry changed so much and she had to find support somewhere else. But then again, it wasn't that hard to go through with the affair after some time.

"I did at first, but now, no, I don't regret it. You were a great friend, once, but now you're nothing like you used to be. I can't understand why you turned out this way. If you ever do get help, then come find me. Goodbye, Harry. Take care of yourself. You're going to need it."

And with that, Hermione walked down the remainder of the stairs and slammed the front door. For the first since he moved in, Harry was left alone in 12 Grimmauld Place. The house was given to him from the will of his godfather, Sirius Black, the alleged murderer but he was never cleared of his charges, even up to his death. As Harry picked himself up from the stairs, he walked right into the master bedroom and started looking for his ex-girlfriend's things. He wanted to take his rage out on something, and he might as well start with her belongings.

The room was neat and tidy, just like Hermione liked it. Boxes were stacked in the corner with what looked like the rest of Hermione's things. It seems she had some time to pack up her things and promptly leave later that day. This was obviously planned. Harry wondered how long Hermione was thinking about leaving him. Tearing himself away, Harry went straight to the nearby closet that was magically expanded to house all their clothes. Only Harry's remained. He wasn't surprised. Hermione did take a suitcase after all, so he figured that she charmed the luggage and got them all in there.

The next room Harry checked was the bathroom. Like the bedroom closet, all of Hermione's things were gone, but Harry's remained. Harry was thankful that Hermione didn't throw Harry's things away, but it didn't matter too much. He was extremely wealthy and could afford anything he wanted. The 19 year old was filled with a ton of hate and sadness at the moment. He then decided to check every single room of the house in hopes of finding something that belonged to Hermione. Nothing was found, and Harry was angry. Not one article of clothing, or a neglected piece of jewelry, or anything of sentimental value was left in the house that Hermione owned.

After finding nothing, Harry stormed down the stairs, went into the kitchen, and grabbed the nearest bottle of firewhiskey. Not even bothering to find a shot glass, Harry grabbed the lid of the bottle, quickly twisted it off, and began drinking, and drinking, and drinking. It only took 20 minutes for him to finish off the unopened bottle, and Harry was wasted, but it didn't matter to him. No one was going to check up on him, and he wanted to be alone anyway. The room was spinning madly. Harry tried his best to make it over to the couch near the kitchen, but it proved to be impossible. Since Harry was so drunk, he stumbled over himself and fell to the floor, not bothering to get himself up. He stayed there for the remainder of the night, and tried his best to get some sleep.

Harry had no idea how long he slept. Sometime through his slumber, he awoke to the sound of something sizzling in the kitchen. His head pounded and felt like a hammer was beating him over the head with vigorous force. His vision was blurry, but that was because his glasses had fallen off just a few inches from his face. After putting them on, the young man made his way over to the kitchen to see who came by.

"So you're finally up. Rough night I see? I'm not really surprised. You always were quick to hit the sauce too hard."

Harry groaned and didn't care if his father heard him or not. Yes, Harry's parents survived the attempt on their life from Voldemort all those years ago. The Dark Lord died when the killing curse rebounded back to him, but no one had any idea why, and no one questioned it. No one was considered to be the chosen one, there were no prophecies to speak of, and the Potter's weren't overly famous as they would have been in other timelines. That wasn't to say that Harry had a good childhood. You see, Harry was one of three children born from Lily and James Potter. His brother and sister were constantly praised for their talents, while Harry was not as favored. He wasn't ignored by any means, but James Sr. and Lily often made it clear that James II and Rose were way better children than Harry, and nothing he did could change their minds.

James Potter II, and Rose Potter were favorited by Harry's parents from the beginning. Harry's brother was a Gryffindor like his father and mother. It didn't hinder him from being the oldest child either. James was incredibly brave, had a natural talent for flying (which his father approved of), and was extremely gifted in Defense Against the Dark Arts. The saving grace of his character for Harry was that James was an idiot in all of his other subjects. He would usually come home with Poors or Trolls on his exams, with the rare instance of getting an Acceptable. James was extremely happy to have a job as a Seeker for the Quidditch Team: Puddlemere United. If he didn't have this job, he would probably be working as an hourly assistant in a joke shop somewhere.

Rose, on the other hand, was sorted into Ravenclaw because she was incredibly brilliant. The youngest Potter had a photographic memory, and often boasted her superior intelligence in the presence of others. She frequently gave Hermione a run for her title of "brightest witch of the age", but most people preferred Hermione's attitude over Rose's. James and Lily were happy for their daughter's accomplishments, more recently, the ascension into the Ministry of Magic by being the youngest witch to ever hold the position of junior secretary to the Minister. Harry didn't care. She was a brat and that's all that mattered to him.

Harry was sorted into Slytherin. His entire family disapproved, with the exception of his godfather, Sirius Black, until he died. From day one in Hogwarts, Harry's brother James made his life a living hell. Since Harry was a Slytherin, his Gryffindor sibling taunted him for being an "evil wizard", tripped him in the halls on almost a daily basis, and insulted him whenever he could. Most of these insults just bounced off of him, but the one that hurt the most was hearing that his mum and dad didn't love him.

When Rose came to Hogwarts, things got even worse. The sibling duo of Rose and James was unstoppable against Harry, but no one cared or stood up for him. Rose would insult his intelligence by claiming he was a dunderhead, and James would take up the physical abuse by picking fights with Harry. The only saving grace was when Harry graduated from Hogwarts because he wouldn't have to be around his obnoxious sister any more. James graduated two years earlier, so he only had one difficult Potter to work with at the time.

"Why are you here, Dad? Shouldn't you be kissing the ground your first son walks on, or having lunch with Rose?" Harry grunted.

"Oh I just wanted to see how my son is holding up. We all heard of your recent breakup with Hermione. That's terrible, Harry. Just terrible."

"Terrible for her, or terrible for me?"

"Her. It sounds like she was suffering because of you, but I'm not surprised. Your relationships have a tendency to not last long. Maybe you should take this lesson to heart, and treat your girlfriends better."

"You and I both know the reason why my relationships don't last. My pig of a brother can't keep his hands to himself. It was always like this in school, and now it seems to have expanded outwards as well. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he's the rat who had an affair with Hermione and got her pregnant."

James Potter raised his eyebrows when hearing this surprising bit of news.

"Pregnant? Where did you hear a ludicrous thing like that?"

"Oh, I thought everyone knew she was pregnant? Because after all, if you know, then everyone knows! Did Hermione come by and tell you all the great news?"

"She did come by and tell us it was over, but she never mentioned being pregnant. We were relieved that she finally made the right choice. You were never worthy of her. I'm only glad I was able to salvage our relationship with her parents, because after all, they are our partners in several businesses."

"Is that all you care about? James, Rose, and money?"

"No. I care about your mother too."

"Whatever." Harry muttered. "It's obviously James' baby, by the way. Who else would be devious enough to steal another one of my girlfriends, and get her pregnant?" Harry said sarcastically.

"She's not pregnant, Harry. She told you that in order to get out of your relationship." Harry's father informed him.

"Yeah right, Dad. My brother stole Hermione, got her pregnant, and now you're going to be the grandfather to a bastard child. There's no way James will marry her. She will be tossed out on the street the first chance he gets, and move on to some other floozie. It wouldn't be the first time he's ruined someone else's life." Harry said while brushing off the comments of his father.

"Don't you EVER talk about your brother that way!" James Potter said as he smacked Harry in the face. "Just because you turned out to be a disappointment, doesn't mean you should take it out on your brother."

Harry didn't say anything to his father. There was no use trying to change that asshole's mind. Once James Potter made up his mind, that was final. No one could persuade him, not even Lily Potter.

"Why are you really here Dad? Did mum not cook breakfast this morning so you had to stop by and steal my bacon?"

"Your mother is busy with your sister's wedding. Of course you would know if you stopped by once in a while. Honestly Harry, insulting your mother, what has gotten into you?"

"I didn't insult her, Dad, I merely observed that you are a dirty thief and stole my bacon supply!"

James had finished cooking Harry's bacon some time ago while talking to his son. Throughout the conversation, James was eating the bacon strips until there was nothing left. He took Harry's bacon on purpose, just like he always did when Harry was a kid.

"Well I can see that coming over here was a waste of time. Thanks for breakfast Harry. See you real soon for your sister's wedding."

"As if I'm ever coming to her wedding. That little monster doesn't want me there, and I'm not going."

"That _little monster_ is your sister, Harry, and she is getting married on Saturday. You would do well to be there, and support her. Your mother and I expect it!"

"But not Rose, right?"

"She was against the idea, but your mother and I made her see reason. Make sure to get her an expensive gift, to let her know she made the right decision on inviting you."

"I'm not bringing that stuck up bitch of a sister anything. I will go to her wedding, but as soon as the vows are over, I'm out of there. I'm not going to wait around and hear the insulting things about me while eating."

"No, son, you WILL stay the entire time, or you be evicted from Grimmauld Place!" James threatened. "Oh yes, Harry. I'm dead serious. I realize this is your house, but your stay at your godfather's house lies on the decision to come to the wedding. If you really want to throw that away, then fine, don't come. But don't expect me, or your mother, to give you the place back."

Harry looked at his father with complete disgust. The young man was ashamed that he was related to this incredibly self-centered ass. Harry had a feeling in the back of his mind that his mother and father had already taken him out of their will already, and was using this leverage to guilt trip him into going, but couldn't prove it. There was no way he could access the Sirius' will by going to Gringotts, because the document belonged to Lily and James Potter, and could not be read by anyone else until their deaths. As if he would care that they died. There would be no tears shed by Harry James Potter at all. Until that time, however, Harry would try his best to keep his inherited house in tact.

"Fine." Harry begrudgingly stated.

"Good. Was that really so hard? Now if you'll excuse me, I have to help your sister get things ready for the wedding. See you on Saturday at 9:00 AM sharp!" James Potter said as he flooed back to the Potter Manor.

Harry was pissed off beyond reason. His eyes turned a blood red color, and he threw all of the nearby things on the floor in hopes of smashing them. They didn't. It looked like Hermione our charms on the objects in the house as well, which was the norm for her. Since Harry couldn't throw anything he decided to get ready for the day and go into work. It may have been his day off, but the young man didn't care. He couldn't stay in the house all day. It would cause him to go insane with anger towards his entire family.

Saturday came extremely quickly for Harry, and he dreaded every possible minute leading up to the wedding. He tried to sleep last night, but couldn't because he really, and I mean REALLY, did not want to make an appearance. So what if his sister was getting married? It's not like Rose would change her mind about her brother for one day. She was a brat, and he was the "ass of a brother". Nothing would ever change.

Around 8:55 AM, Harry was dressed in his spiffy suit and tie. His shoes were nicely polished and his hair was well combed. Well combed was such a vague term. His hair was always a rats nest of wild hair follicles. He liked it. No one else did. When it reached 8:59 AM, Harry took the floo powder and threw it in the fireplace while saying "Potter Manor" as quiet as possible. He hoped that by saying it quietly, he would end up halfway across the world somewhere, and not be able to floo back. That would be such a damn shame if he missed his only sister's wedding. Unfortunately he did make it to the right location and stumbled out. Next time Harry vowed to say the location wrong and see where it took him.

Harry stumbled out of the floo connection and landed on the floor of his parent's living room. There were tons of guests walking and running around. Thankfully none of them were his siblings or father, but he knew he would see their smug faces soon enough. His mother was a different story.

"There you are, Harold! Thank goodness you arrived. I'm so glad you decided to help out with the wedding. Your sister will be very appreciative."

"Mum, my name is not Harold, it's Harry. We've been over this many times, and you know what my name is."

"Of course, Henry. Okay now place your gift for the couple over here, and then please help out the rest of the hired help. We must make sure your sisters wedding goes off perfectly!" Lily Potter exclaimed as she walked away. Out of all his family, Lily bothered him the least. At least she tried to care, but she always got his name wrong. Always.

Harry didn't bring a gift. Not really. He did have something for his sister, but it wasn't what she was expecting. Earlier on, Harry transfigured a rock into a nice set of dragon hide gloves for Rose. The charm would wear off in about 12 hours. Harry only hoped that his sister would open up the gift, and then realize the next day it was gone. That would be such a damn shame. He only wished he could be there when his sister noticed the pair of gloves was gone. Harry took his gift, and placed it with the others on the nearby table.

Realizing he had nothing better to do, Harry made his way to the back where the hired help was to set up the wedding tables. Even though the ceremony would begin in 3 hours, there was a lot left to do. Thank god for magic. Unfortunately the Potter house elves were currently busy with other tasks, so the young man would have to tackle his assignments by himself. Harry started by getting all the tables unfolded and the chairs placed in the appropriate spaces. He was just about to start draping the tables, when another voice Harry didn't want to hear came within ear reach.

"Well well well. Long time no see, little brother." James Potter II said with an emphasis on "little brother" towards his younger sibling.

"What do you want, James? You trying to steal another girlfriend of mine? Well that's too bad considering you already took Hermione away from me! Now I am single again thanks to you, you pigheaded ass!"

"Touchy touchy, Harry. It's not my fault that Hermione left you, and found herself a real man instead. Maybe you should treat your girlfriends better. If that happened, then you wouldn't have caused her to go after someone else." James said with a smug face. "From what I hear, her new lover is quite the looker and a great seeker too."

"So he's a seeker huh? Which team does he play for?"

"Uh ... um ... Hollyhead Harpies?"

"That team is comprised of all female players. Try again, dipshit."

"What's your problem, Harry? Hermione cheated on you, and found a better lover. That's not my fault. If anything, she came on to me and ..." James was saying but realized that he had said too much to his brother.

"I knew it. I knew you slept with her and had an affair behind my back. That is so typical of you, James, it makes you predictable." Harry said with a nasty look on his face. If looks could kill, then James would be dead. "Oh. Wait. It's not that predictable. Want to know why? Hermione is pregnant!" Harry almost shouted. James' face fell the instant he heard this piece of news.

"You're lying. She's not pregnant. She would have told me."

"Well that's what she told me on her way out of my house! Unless she's an amazing liar, then I'd start looking for a ring for Hermione. Oh wait. What am I thinking? That's not your style. You won't marry her because that's beneath you, James. First you sleep with her, then you get my ex-girlfriend knocked up, and then, like I'm guessing, you'll leave her on her own to raise the kid while you go back to fucking bimbos on the fly. Am I right?" Harry asked.

Instead of talking it out with his brother, James launched himself at Harry and the two were punching each other profusely. Even though Harry was quicker, James had the strength and easy beat Harry in less than a minute. A crowd of people had formed around the two, and all gasped at the sight of James hurting Harry. When James had finished his beatdown, he realized he was being watched so he abruptly left. Harry was still on the ground and was eventually helped up. When he had a moment to regain his composure, Harry performed a few healing spells on his face, and did a few concealment charms to mask the bruise he would get in a few hours.

After being throttled by James, Harry decided to go back inside the house instead of helping set up outside. He figured that someone may end up hurting him too. Once inside, Harry could see that the entire house was full of frantic people. Most of them were women. Thankfully Rose was not downstairs, and instead in her old room on the second floor. Harry would have probably lost it if Rose had come down right now and started beating him senseless also. He figured she wouldn't do that right now, but, Rose was considered to be a bridezilla, so he wanted to keep his distance.

"Harvey, over here!" Lily Potter exclaimed towards her estranged son. Harry rolled his eyes and moved closer to his mum. "Harvey can you please start heading outside? The ceremony is about to begin, and I want you to sit in the front row with us."

Harry wanted to object immediately since he couldn't stand the thought of his sister, brother, and father, all sending daggers with their eyes at him, but changed his mind. This was hopefully his sister's only wedding, so he might as well suck it up and enjoy it. Harry made his way to the front row of the ceremony and sat down near the farther end. James Potter Sr., James Potter II, and Lily Potter soon made their way over to their son, but didn't sit as close. There were a few seats open in the front: two were reserved for the groom's parents, and one was reserved for Remus Lupin, Rose's godfather, and best friend of James Potter Senior.

Minutes later, the groom's family appeared. The parents of the groom made their way down and sat close to Harry's family. Since Harry had no idea who these people were, he decided to take in their appearances: black hair, very proper, both were wearing fancy clothes, and they definitely adored their son, because they wouldn't stop talking about him. Not long after the groom's family's arrival, Remus Lupin made his way over to his seat.

"Hello, Harry. It's been a long time hasn't it?"

"Hello, Remus. It's good to see you again." Harry said with some reluctance.

Harry knew Remus Lupin was a nice man, but he almost blindly sided himself with Rose Potter on almost everything. Since Remus had always wanted a girl, he treated Rose as if she was a princess. Nothing was too good for her, and thanks to this behavior, Rose became greedy and vicious when she didn't get her way. Remus was also great friends with Harry's dad and mum too. There were a lot of stories told about Remus, Sirius, and Peter when the Potter children were growing up, but it became old news, and soon none of them wanted to hear these stories any time soon.

"I must say, Harry, I think this ceremony is gorgeous. Your sister will appreciate all the work that was put into it. I can't wait to see her face and watch her smile light up the area."

"I don't think you know my sister that well, Remus."

"Nonsense, Harry! This is a special day for her, and we all need to show some support!"

Before Harry could retort, the ceremony began. During his conversation with Remus, James Potter Sr. made his way to the back and walked his daughter down the aisle. After a few minutes, James and Rose arrived at the front while her future husband was already there. Harry did admit that Rose looked great for a bride, and her husband looked not too bad either, but he didn't care too much. His main area of concern was just how long this damn celebration was going to last. The ceremony proceeded onward. Rose became Mrs. Michael Corner at some point, and everyone was clapping, and clapping. Harry did clap a few times, but it was only for Michael. Those claps were extremely slow. Harry purposely did this in hopes of trying to warn him in becoming Rose's new husband that _"You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into, Michael."_

It was a short time later when the reception began. Not surprisingly, Harry was not allowed to have a seat with the family. Not that it bothered him. Rose and Michael were seated in the center, with the best man, Terry Boot, on Michael's left, and the maid of honor, Hermione, on Rose's right. Harry was completely astounded that Hermione was the maid of honor, considering she was shacking up with Rose's older brother. Maybe Rose knew about it didn't have a problem with that. Then again maybe she did know and it was too late to get another replacement maid of honor. The thought was still really disgusting.

 _"Just get through this wedding, and I don't have to see Hermione again. Hopefully for a long long time. Same thing goes for Rose … and James! Yeah I think I want to avoid James the most."_ Harry thought.

Moments later the glasses were being clinked and the speeches from the best "people" as Harry called it, started. Terry's speech was pretty lackluster, commenting on Michael's accomplishments in school and getting a job at the Ministry of Magic. Harry tried his best not to fall asleep, because other people were doing it in the crowd. Sometime in the distant future, Terry finished, and everyone woke up, and started clapping as if it was the best speech in the world. Hermione was up next, and Harry was groaning because he knew this was going to be bad for him somehow.

"Hello everyone, my name is Hermione Granger. I am a muggleborn and didn't know much about the wizarding world when I first arrived here. After two years at Hogwarts, I still didn't know very much of how this world works, how people function, and what kinds of prospects were out there for everyone. Then Rose Potter came into my life. It was hard for us to be friends at first since we are both so competitive. I remember when she beat my score on the Potions Exam in my third year by three points, and we ended up fighting for a few days over who was smarter. Despite our competitiveness, we were really close friends throughout school. When it came time to graduation, I was sad because I was leaving behind my best friend for a year, while I headed off towards a career. I thought that by being close to her family, it would fill the void in my life, but it wasn't the same. Even though I got to know her brothers very well (Harry groaned at this part), and became comfortable with her parents as if they were my own, I knew I would still miss my best friend at school. When she got out, I was so excited to have Rose back into my life, and now, we both work for the ministry and try to outdo one another there too (the crowd chuckled at this). Rose, I know you and Michael are perfect for each other. You make each other happy, and I know you couldn't have found a better match than the man right beside you. I wish you both the best that life has to offer, and I hope you have a wonderful marriage." Hermione said while trying to keep her emotions under control.

Hermione then raised her glass, and offered her congratulations towards the newly married couple, which almost everyone in the crowd mimicked, except for Harry. He only sent a glare towards his newly ex girlfriend, and she gave him one in return. The young man knew this was a crock of bullshit. Hermione and Rose were NOT friends. Hermione was only there to make a crack at him, and she somewhat succeeded. Hermione was correct when she said that she and Rose were competitive, but it normally ended in a shouting match, and more often than not, the two girls would fire spells at one another, and try to kill each other from pure hatred. When Rose got the position at the ministry, Hermione was furious and attempted to get her fired. She failed, but wasn't fired. Harry suspected that Rose only picked Hermione because she had some dirt on the muggle-born witch, or because she wanted to cause some pain to her somewhat older brother. Harry guessed that it was first choice.

The floor was then cleared as Michael and Rose took to the center of the dance floor for their first dance as husband and wife. It would have been touching, had Harry not wanted to vomit the entire time. After the first dance, other couples moved towards the center, and began dancing, but Harry wisely hung back. After watching some of the dances, Harry was tapped on the shoulder and saw that it was Ron Weasley, James Potter's brutish friend.

"Hey, Potter. Rose wants you to dance with her."

"Tell her I refuse."

"She said you would say that. She also said if you didn't, she would announce to everyone about you being an unfaithful cheat to Hermione." Ron said with a sneer.

Realizing that Rose would do something so devious at her own wedding, Harry begrudgingly got up from his seat and made his way over towards his sister. It wasn't hard to locate her, especially since she was the loudest one there. What with the boasting about her appearance, or the fact that her wedding day was today, Rose was absolutely going to soak all of the attention up.

"Hello, Rose."

"Oh hello brother! It's so wonderful to see you" Rose said with a ton of fake enthusiasm in her voice. She had to do her best to appear to be happy considering that there were a lot of people around her.

"Can we get this over with? I would like to go back to my table and be left alone."

"Oh don't be such a stick in the mud, Harry. Come have a dance with me! Don't you want to dance with your sister on her wedding day?"

Harry knew exactly what he would have liked to his sister, but wisely decided to bite his tongue. It wouldn't do well to insult Rose on her wedding day. The other guests would have a field day. Rose guided him towards the dancing area and made Harry assume the correct hand positions on her. She started talking really quiet to him so no one else could hear. Thankfully the band was loud enough for the pair to start throwing insults at each other without anyone overhearing.

"I bet you wish you really weren't here right now. Right Harry?"

"Wow, I'm so glad you noticed. How could you tell, Rose?"

"As if I couldn't smell your misery from a mile away. I saw you in the front row and knew you were angry for being here. I don't blame you, Harry. I wouldn't want to show up to your wedding either, so I guess we are even on that regard. Besides, why would I ever want such a slime ball like you here? The only reason why you were invited was because of Mum and Dad."

"Trust me, Rose, I know they're the only reason. I know you would never do something nice and actually invite me personally. It goes against your character. Just think of what people would say if you actually seemed to care for me."

"Oh shut up you bastard. I actually have another reason to invite you here. I know what you did to Hermione, and I have to say I am disgusted with you. Not that I'm surprised. You really are a pile of human garbage."

"DISGUSTED WITH ME?" Harry yelled but instantly began to regain his cool. "Once again you have your facts wrong, little sister. Hermione left me, because she was sleeping with our whore of an older brother over there, and he got her pregnant. Or did James not tell you that?"

"She's not pregnant you imbecile! Hermione only said that to get away from you, and be with James. I can't blame her at all. As if anyone could ever love you, with your awful attitude and disrespect towards women. I should have you thrown out of here right now!"

"Oh so that little prostitute isn't pregnant is she? Well we'll see about that when she starts showing in a few more months. Face it, Rose. Your darling older brother is a pig, and will dump Hermione the instant she tells him the truth. Mark my words, Hermione will be a single mother in less than a year from now."

"Whatever you say you little cretin. I'll have you know that Hermione and I talk a lot about you. We may not be the best of friends, but trust me, I'll do anything to make your life miserable, even if it means pretending to be her friend. Do you know what she said to me? She said you are a pathetic lover and not a caring boyfriend at all. She said that James is better in every possible way than you. Also she was planning on leaving you from almost the beginning, but didn't have the heart to tell you, because you're so pathetic." Rose viciously exclaimed into her brother's ear.

Before Harry could retaliate back at her, the song ended and the two siblings stopped dancing. In order to play their part, Harry and Rose bowed to each other, with the fakest smiles ever on their faces, then went their separate ways. Harry was relieved to be away from that little horrific bride rolled up into a terrifying nightmare. With nothing on his agenda, Harry went to the bar to drink away his problems. Harry was not one to normally drink, but in times like this, he made exceptions. He swore to his parents that he wouldn't get drunk at Rose's wedding, but that didn't mean he couldn't get buzzed.

"A shot of firewhiskey please, and leave the bottle. I feel I'm going to need it today." Harry informed the bartender. Even though the man behind the counter was worried about doing such a request, he gave in and gave the young man his bottle of alcohol.

Harry was slightly hurt after hearing the things that Rose said to him. It's not like he didn't hear any of those insults before, but never all at once. He didn't bother trying to inform his parents of what Rose said. His father would simply not believe his "lies" and his mother would just turn her attention back towards Rose or James, because after all, they were her only children. Her spoiled rotten, selfish, and bastardly children at that. Harry had gotten through his fourth shot of firewhiskey when someone came up from behind and tapped him on the shoulder.

"What?" Harry said with some anger as he turned around to see who was bothering him. The young man had an inkling that it was Ron again sent to do James' dirty work, but was surprised when it wasn't him. Nor was it his traitorous ex-girlfriend Hermione, and it wasn't anyone who was related to him. No the person who tapped his shoulder was an extremely beautiful young woman he had never expected to see again. Least of all here.

"Hi." the woman said with some shyness in her voice.

"Hello. Now what do you want?"

"I uh … I wanted to introduce myself. I'm …" the girl tried to say but was interrupted.

"I know who you are, Ginny Weasley. If you're looking for my dickhead brother, he's back there probably trying to shack it up with some poor soul who is low enough to accept his advances." Harry said while pointing over to the main tent in the back.

"Oh. Um. I appreciate that, but …"

"Good I'm glad you got what you wanted. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to return to drinking this bottle of alcohol." Harry said with a slight amount of reluctance. He didn't want to drink this much today, but it was necessary in order to get through the amount of time he would spend with his family.

"I wasn't looking for your brother, Harry. I was looking for …"

"Oh my mistake. You must mean Rose. If you want her, then I'm sure she's talking to my jackass of a father. She is most likely over there as well." Harry said as he gulped down one more shot while again pointing to the main tent. He was starting to feel a little bit of that buzz, but continued onwards. That feeling of tipsiness wasn't going to stop anytime soon, but Harry welcomed it.

"I didn't want to talk to your sister either, Harry. I wanted to talk to you."

"Sure you were." Harry stated with some sarcasm. He knew he must have looked disgusting by the way he was drinking, but didn't care. The buzz was getting stronger with each new shot and the young man didn't want to come down from this high.

"Did James put you up to this? It wouldn't surprise me if he did." Harry asked.

"I haven't talked to him once today, Harry. He did invite me, but he's been too busy to talk to me at all. I can't blame him one bit. It is your sister's wedding after all."

"Then why don't you talk to someone else, hell, anyone else besides me? You were close to my parents, and friendly enough towards Rose, so it's not like you can't talk to other people here. Why don't you stop wasting my time, and just tell me the truth?"

The bartender was starting to get a little hesitant to serve Mr. Potter any more liquor, especially after seeing him yell at this girl who hadn't done anything to him. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to have given him the entire bottle.

"Excuse me?" Ginny asked. She seemed a little offended by his comment, but not too much.

"You don't have to pretend, Weasley. Being my brother's ex and all, it would make sense that he would talk about me. I'm sure he mentioned how pathetic I am, and would try his best to use other people if possible to make me miserable, right?' Harry said as he finished another drink and then turned his full attention towards the redhead.

"You think I don't remember you, Ginevra, but I do. All the pranks, insults, and thefts of my things are still rooted in my mind and they haven't gone away. You may not have done all of those things to me, but you did instigate a lot of them. I didn't think you were that self centered and cruel, but I guess I was wrong. What's your game here anyway? You're still good friends with James even after everything you both went through, and now you're talking to me? Are you trying to make small talk as if nothing ever happened? Well I'm not falling for it. Not today at least. As I said earlier, my shithead brother is down there somewhere most likely fucking some tramp. If you need him that badly, then go."

Ginny was now incredibly nervous. Her subtle approach seemed to be failing fast because she had hoped that Harry wouldn't have remembered her. So much for that.

"Listen, Harry, I swear I'm not here on James' behalf. I came here on my own because I sincerely wanted to talk to you. I understand you're hesitant, but I swear that I'm not lying. Can you please give me a chance?" Ginny hopefully asked. Harry pretended to think about it for a moment before he answered abruptly.

"No." Ginny's face fell. "I don't want to associate myself with anyone who is friends with James, or Rose, or have ever had relationships with James, or Rose." Harry said while sighing. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to leave this sham of a wedding. I wasn't even invited here anyway."

Harry took the remainder of the firewhiskey bottle, and started walking out to the apparition point. The bartender decided not to say anything again, but was truly mad at the attitude that the second oldest Potter child was displaying here. Before Harry left, he said one final thing to Ginny.

"By the way, Weasley, tell your oaf of a brother, Ron, to stop bothering me. I don't have time for his childish games and would prefer if he weren't around me anymore. If you see Bill though, tell him I said hi. He's the only Weasley that I've actually liked thus far."

He could tell that Ginny Weasley was crushed, but he didn't care. He wasn't going to fall for another one of his sibling's tricks today. Harry was positive that James had asked her to talk to him and then make him feel worse. The young man had already had enough today thanks to his idiot mum, bitch of an ex Hermione, and the savageness of James and Rose. He was grateful that his father didn't decide to approach him today, because it would have been the shit icing on the shit cake. Harry finally made it to the outside area, and then apparated away. No one even noticed that he left except for one person, but she was currently upset from the way he treated her.

Later that night, Harry dreamt about his time at Hogwarts, something he hadn't done for two years now. Since Ginny Weasley's appearance at Rose's wedding bothered him, his consciousness decided to focus on one of the more significant times he had to deal with his blockhead brother. In his dream, Harry was sixteen, in his sixth year of school, and was heading down the crowded hall to his next class, whatever it was. Harry was carrying his books in his bag and kept a tight grip on them as he walked by the other students. When he finally made it towards a semi empty hallway, the young man discovered that he was surrounded by Gryffindors on all sides. They weren't blocking him, but there was a lot of them conveniently present. As he was about to reach the end, James Potter II appeared out of nowhere with Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley, and a few other Gryffindors named Seamus, Dean and Pavarti. The small army decided to step in front of Harry and pushed him back.

Harry remembered what happened next all too well. James and Ron tried to throw a few punches at him, but quickly sideswiped out of the way. Dean and Seamus had their wands at the ready in case either Gryffindor had somehow lost, while Pavarti conjured up a barrier so Harry, Ron and James couldn't escape until the Slytherin had been taken care of. The fist fight continued in the small ring, but Harry had managed to dodge the punches for now. His brother had come close a couple of times to hitting him, but Ron was just pathetic and couldn't reach his target at all. Harry couldn't avoid the harm for long because his brother slammed his gorilla fist into the young man's face. Harry's glasses were broken and fell to the ground without any effort.

Seeing his opportunity, Ron lunged at Harry with raging fury. Ron pummeled Harry to the ground and began beating him senseless, while James asked him to lessen up so that he could have a turn. The next few minutes were hazy as Harry absorbed blow after blow. He was bleeding out his nose, hair, and ears, but it didn't seem to be enough. Before he passed out from the pain, Harry could see James walk over to Ginny. They seemed to be laughing. The two were pleased at how things turned out for the younger Potter, and the evidence was not hard to deny. He couldn't remember what happened next, because when he woke from sleep, the young man was in the Hospital Wing. His face was bruised and the bleeding had stopped, but the pain was almost unbearable. Thankfully Snape had found Harry when he did, otherwise the boy would know how things could have turned out.

Harry awoke from his dream and found himself sitting up in bed. He was not calm after witnessing the dream. It was dark, so he assumed he had slept for quite a while. Without much choice of what to do next, Harry went back to bed for a few more hours. He didn't have another nightmare that night.

Sunday wasn't too exciting for Harry, but he was just glad to get away from his family for the day. Monday creeped its head after that, and Harry was glad to get back to work in the Auror department. This was the one area of his life where he was appreciated and his co-workers liked him. In the morning, Harry performed his normal routine and proceeded to floo into the Ministry of Magic. Just like always, the ministry lobby was crowded with witches and wizards busying themselves with whatever they were trying to accomplish. There were several paper airplane memos above their heads as well, that zipped so fast around corners that it was impossible to tell where they were going exactly.

It wasn't too long before Harry arrived at work. He was the supervisor of a small team that dealt with attacks from dark wizards. Lately things had gone pretty well. Criminals were scarce ever since Voldemort perished all those years ago. The only ones who ever performed any major crimes had tried to murder, rape, and steal in the name of their once beloved Dark Lord. That didn't mean there wasn't any work to be done in the Auror department though. The Minister of Magic always kept them busy with something.

"Hello, Samantha. How was your weekend?" Harry genuinely asked the front desk receptionist as he walked in.

"It was good, Mr. Potter. I have exciting news! Joe and I found out I'm pregnant! I'm expecting my little one to arrive in September!" Samantha said with a huge smile on her face.

"Really? Wow that's amazing! Congratulations Samantha!" Harry hid his disappointment when hearing this news, but had to be happy for her. He wasn't upset at all that Samantha was expecting a child, but to hear someone else was pregnant, after already hearing it from his ex, it hurt him.

"How many times do I have to remind you, Mr. Potter, that I'd prefer to be called Sam?"

"And how many times have I've asked you to call me just Harry instead of Mr. Potter?"

"Fair enough, _Harry_." Samantha jokingly sneered at her boss. Harry stuck his tongue out at her, being the immature one in the conversation. Sam thought it was funny.

"Well again I'm really happy for you, Sam. If you or Joe need anything, please let me know. Okay?"

"Okay, Harry." Sam said. "Oh wait, I almost forgot, you have someone waiting for you in your office."

"Is it an appointment that I forgot about?"

"Let me see here. Hmm … no it appears to be unscheduled. I don't know who you were expecting, but they're in there."

"Do you remember who it was, Sam? Was it a man or a woman?"

"It was a man. He had slicked blonde hair and wore a fine black suit and tie."

"Did he appear to be older than me?"

"I'm sorry, Harry. I only was able to see his clothes and hair before he walked past me saying that he was going to wait for you to come in. I have no idea if he was older than you or not."

Harry jokingly groaned. He had a pretty good idea who this person was, and even though he appeared to be miserable at the thought, he was excited to see a possible friend.

"Thanks, Sam. I'll see you later."

Harry went towards the back of the small office space and opened the door to his office. Inside he found the blonde haired man that Sam talked about, but was surprised when he realized it wasn't the one he was expecting.

"Draco Malfoy? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be licking someone's boot right about now? God knows you couldn't have survived in this world without that, because your magical prowess is the equivalent of a squib." Harry exclaimed.

"Is that how you treat an old friend, Potter? You never write, and you never stop by to see how I'm doing. I'm starting to feel offended! Also you're one to talk about being a squib. We both know your father had to bribe all the professors at Hogwarts in order to graduate because, let's be honest, you're the epitome of idiocy, and your knowledge of spell casting is on par with a first year muggle-born." Draco Malfoy said.

Harry gave the young man in front of him an angry look, but it quickly dropped once the two of them broke out in laughter. Harry went over to his longtime friend and the two hugged each other. The two then released and Harry walked over to his desk and sat down.

"It's good to see you, Draco, but I'm surprised to see you here. Shouldn't your father be here today? I was expecting him to come by in hopes of using my extremely stretched thin amount of men and women in the Auror department. I heard he was going to throw another house party."

"I haven't heard anything about that."

"Sure you haven't. You're usually the first to know about these things. I expect an invitation by the way." Harry stated.

"Whatever, Potter. Father is not going to be stopping by today. It's just little old me."

"I'm assuming this is not a social visit, because if it is, there's the door. I do have a lot to do today." Harry indicated the door behind his friend.

"Oh yeah I'm sure you have a lot to do, considering the Aurors aren't as busy as they used to be. The paperwork is not going to file itself is it?" Draco mocked.

"Fair enough. What do you need?"

"I am requesting your services. Only you. I would prefer if this was done discreetly."

"Why come to me? Surely there are others in this department that can help you?"

"Come on, Harry! We've been friends since the beginning of school. I thought that our longtime relationship would amount to something."

"Fine, Draco. I guess I can help you out." Harry sarcastically answered. "What can I do for you?"

"It's not for me, It's for my parents. Ever since father defected from the Dark Lord, he and my mother have been targeted and harassed by Voldemort fanatics. There are some that believe my father got away easily, and his disloyalty should not go unpunished. I know the Aurors have taken care of Nott, Dolohov, the Carrow siblings, Pettigrew, McNair, and both of the Lestranges. Even you personally took cake of Crouch Jr., but there is one left in the Dark Lord's inner circle that needs to be arrested. Is this something you can handle?"

Whatever Harry was expecting from his friend, it certainly didn't sound like this. Draco rarely came to him for help because he always preferred to do things his way, and he was usually successful. This time Harry knew it was serious.

"I hope you're not talking about, Greyback, Malfoy."

"I am. He's the last one of those degenerates that the Dark Lord recruited. As soon as he's hunted down like the dog he is, then my parents can feel safe."

"Draco ..." Harry said with a sigh.

"What, Potter? Is it money you need? We will pay you anything you ask, just please get this done!"

"I don't want your money, Draco. I just want to inform you that Greyback has avoided capture at every turn. He's the most devious Death Eater that we have ever tried to take down. Not to mention that he's a werewolf, and his clan will not betray him under any circumstances. We've done everything we can try to get that bastard. How do you expect us to find him?" Harry almost angrily exclaimed.

Draco pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it over to Harry.

"That should help you find Greyback."

Harry opened the little bag and discovered what was inside. His eyes widened when he discovered what it was.

"Is this …"

"It's Greyback's hairs, yes. With this, you can use a polyjuice potion to change into him, and then try to find the werewolf. I suggest to start looking for his clan, but I'm sure you already knew that."

"Where did you get this?" Harry shockingly asked.

"That monster almost killed a few children last week, and thankfully it caused him to lower his guard. Father was trying to find information about his whereabouts when the monster happened to be coincidentally nearby. Greyback seemed to be in one of his aggressive moods so father stunned him when he wasn't looking, took some hairs, and left before he was discovered. He only managed to get these to me yesterday."

"Why didn't Lucius just kill Greyback? That would have eliminated the problem!"

"Father has abstained from killing ever since he defected. It would have made things easier, but he is firmly against taking a life. He said that killing ripped apart his soul, but had no choice because of the Dark Lord."

"Where are your parents now?"

"They're still in the manor, but I am moving them to a secure location tonight. The walls have ears, Potter, even in here, and I wont say anything more on the subject.'

Harry sat in his desk and for the first time he honestly had nothing to say. Draco had just given him the key to finding the last one of those bastards who supported Voldemort and got away. This would also mark the end of a long road ahead for Harry. With Greyback's arrest, the deaths of several innocents in this war would finally be avenged, the world would be a lot safer and the Malfoys could come out of hiding.

"Draco, thanks to you and your parents, I will make sure the bastard is taken down. It will take me a few days to get everything I need to leave, and I will not return until he is either dead or captured. Once he has been dealt with, I will make sure you and your family get credit for aiding the Auror department." Harry said with a huge smile on his face.

"Thanks, Harry. Just please be discrete and do it quickly." Draco Malfoy said as he shook his friend's hand as another gesture of his gratitude. As Draco began to leave, Harry asked how much his reward would be for finding Greyback, to which the blonde haired man just smirked, said nothing and walked away.

The rest of the day went by pretty quickly for Harry Potter. After discovering that the Ministry's potion supply was close on finishing its next batch of polyjuice, Harry guesstimated that it would be ready in two days. This free time would allow Harry to look over the case notes written on Greyback, and maybe ask for whereabouts from darker wizards in Knockturn Alley. The other possibility would be to ask Remus Lupin, because after all, Greyback was the one who turned a young Remus into a werewolf. It also helped that the man was a personal friend of his dad, and had been friendly with Harry on several occasions.

Just before the young man headed out for the door, Sam stopped him from leaving.

"Wait, Harry, don't leave yet!"

Harry screeched to a stop. "Did I really forget another appointment today, Sam?"

"Actually no. This is another walk-in. She really wants to talk to you, Harry. Should I send her in?"

Harry rolled his eyes in annoyance. There was a very high probability that this woman was just trying to meet him because he was extremely wealthy. Even without his share of the family fortune, the young Potter had a lot of money on his own, thanks to hard work, determination, and his money being divided into multiple businesses in the stock market by the goblins at Gringotts. Harry was angry when the Daily Prophet decided to announce that he had made a killing from his stock market success, and he suspected that Rose was behind it. He could never prove it though. Ever since his wealth was leaked to the public, flocks of pathetic girls would come by quite often every week. Harry had tried to get the Minister to sign off on some kind of ward that prevented gold diggers from bothering him at work, but the man was currently busy, so Harry would have to deal with these intrusions for the time being.

"Is she one of those girls who only want my money? If so, then I'm not interested. I have enough matters on my plate without having to deal with the crazed up witches that attempt to meet me every week."

"I thought the same thing at first, Harry, but she seems genuine. Why don't you see what she wants? If it turns out I'm wrong, I will personally drag her butt out of your office myself. Deal?"

"Deal." Harry said with a short laugh. "Okay. Send her to my office in 30 seconds. I'll pretend that I'm really busy with something." Sam laughed back at his mannerisms.

Harry made it back to his office and was slightly anxious to see who this woman was, and why she wanted to meet him so late in the day. As long as it was anything other than a fan girl, Harry would help her the best he could. To make it seem like he was busier than he was, Harry pulled out some papers from his older cases on Greyback, and started looking over them. He might as well be useful if he was going to be here longer. A knock at the door initially surprised him, but shook it off once he informed the woman to enter. Harry didn't even look up at her yet.

"Hello, Harry."

Harry looked up to see that it was Ginny Weasley once again. She was dressed in casual clothing that did hug her body in all the right places. She also looked determined to be here. He would have been intrigued had he not already seen her at the wedding, but now she wanted to talk to him at work! Harry inwardly groaned and this time it was not sarcastic at all. Using all the reserved up patience he had, Harry cautiously greeted the red headed woman with some form of politeness.

"Hello, Miss Weasley, is there something the Auror department do for you today?" Harry said with as much enthusiasm as possible. He did not want this girl to come in, but he would at least hear her out before making any judgements.

"Yes, there is. Although I don't need the entire Auror department, I just need one."

"Oh? Can you explain please?" Harry asked with some newfound curiosity.

"Well to be honest I don't need an Auror at all. I never got the chance to talk to you at the wedding. I wanted to come by and see if I could talk to you now." Harry was now beyond annoyed with this woman. Not only did she outright lie when she said she needed an Auror, but she was wasting his time.

"Miss Weasley, did you actually come here with a problem, or were you just trying to get some alone time with me? Frankly, I am extremely busy with an upcoming case, and I need to devote all my time and energy towards that. Now unless you have something life threatening, then I suggest you leave."

Ginny Weasley may have been known to be a fierce and passionate little spitfire, as her brothers so wonderfully pointed out, but she couldn't yell at Harry James Potter. The guilt inside of her wouldn't allow it.

"Could you at least hear me out, Harry? I have some things to say, and I would really appreciate it if you would listen."

"Fine. Just hurry up." Harry drawled. Ginny knew she was on fragile ground, but she had to move forward.

"I wanted to apologize, Harry. You were right when you said I was a nasty little girl in school. I know that I contributed to your rough time in Hogwarts, even when you were nothing but nice to me. When I first saw your brother, I was smitten instantly. I wanted to be with him no matter what it took, and I eventually got my wish. When your brother and I started dating, he made it abundantly clear that I couldn't associate myself with you, or risk our relationship ending. So in order to please him, I became something I didn't like. Whenever James would insult you, I would join in. Whenever your brother wanted you to be pranked, I would offer my ideas in support. And whenever your brother rallied others into making fun of you, or bullying you, I joined in without hesitation. Rose didn't help in matters either, and even further encouraged me.

One day I woke up and realized just how much I had done to you. It was if my life completely turned upside down. I thought about every single time I hurt you, and I felt sick. My conscience made me feel disgusting to act the way that I did, but it was too late to change the past. When I confronted your brother about this, he attempted to apologize, but I could tell it wasn't genuine. I left James after that. I couldn't continue to be mean to someone just so James would be happy. We decided to remain friends, even after everything, but we're not as close as we used to be.

After I graduated, I wanted to make things right by apologizing to you. I must have written dozens of letters, but none of them seemed to sound genuine enough. I eventually attempted to contact you, but you never responded to my letter. Either that or your brother got it first and threw it away. I had hoped that I would see you again one day so that I could tell you in person that I was sorry, but it never happened until your sister's wedding.

In short, I wanted to say I'm sorry, Harry. What I did was inexcusable, and if I could go back to fix things, I would. You didn't deserve any of the crap that was thrown at you. I just hope you can accept my apology."

"Wow you really are a piece of work, Weasley. Everything you've said makes complete sense now! I expected nothing less from James, because he's good at getting under my skin. I don't understand why you would even bother trying to apologize now, when you could have done it a long time ago. That is when you actually had a soul. It really speaks a lot about your character when you only care about putting down others just to satisfy your partner, but I'm sure you don't care about that. Then again, you're probably not the first one to do something like this just to date the blockhead that is my brother. I'm sure a lot women have done even more terrible things than you though." Harry angrily said while gritting his teeth.

"Well I appreciate you coming by and opening up old wounds from the younger days, Miss Weasley. I can't thank you enough for that. I had hoped to put those school days behind me, and just enjoy life without having to relive my time at Hogwarts, but now it seems the past is catching up with me. What exactly did you expect would happen when you walked in here? That'd I'd be civil, move on, and accept your apology? No way. That's twice now you've made your into my life in under a month, and I'm hoping I don't have to deal with you anymore after today."

"I understand you're mad at me, Harry. I do. You're mad about a lot of the things I did, and I can't blame you at all. I am … " Ginny tried to say but was cut off.

"No you don't understand, Weasley!" Harry shouted as he got up from his desk and faced her. "People like you are truly disgusting. No guy is worth lowering your character in order to be in a relationship with them. Not even my brother. If you were even remotely sorry at all, you would have broken up with James from the beginning, or would stop being friends with him! But you didn't, and you're still friends to this day! You can preach to me all you want about being sorry, but there's nothing you can say to make me change my mind about you! It was stupid of you to come here and expect me to react differently!"

"Harry … I'm sorry … I really …" Ginny tried to say with some tears in her eyes that were threatening to fall from her face.

"Don't interrupt me! As I said before, Miss Weasley, I won't associate myself with someone who is friends, or has ever had a relationship with my self centered git of a brother. Let me give you some advice, Miss Weasley. If you don't already know, James is going to drag you down if you continue to be around him. Way down. That includes my bitch of a sister too! Now do me a favor and leave. I have a lot to do before I leave the country." Harry continued to shout while he sat down in his desk again.

"I … understand, Harry. I just hope you will give me a chance to show how sorry I am. Maybe sometime if you're up to it, you can stop by and we can get coffee or something? You can find me in the sports area of the Daily Prophet. I cover the quidditch section in the paper." The redhead hopefully asked.

"Don't hold your breath, Weasley. I would say don't let the door hit you on the way out, but I'd be lying." Harry said with some angry sarcasm. Ginny seemed to have gotten the hint, finally, and she left. As Harry began to leave, he gathered his things and stopped by the front desk once more.

"Holy Merlin, Harry! I could hear the shouting from here! What happened?" Sam asked with a shocked look.

"It was bad, Sam." He said while sighing. "She made a huge mistake coming here."

"How bad was it, Harry? Was she a galleon grabber like you thought?" she asked.

"No. Worse. She made me remember my not so pleasant memories from Hogwarts. It still amazes me to this day what people won't do for my brother and sister. I'd rather have dealt with a galleon grabber to be honest. Do me a favor and don't let in any unscheduled appointments from now on please? I'm done with these kinds of people."

"Sure thing, boss."

"Oh, by the way, I am going to be out of the office for a while. I have an urgent assignment from a friend of mine that involves taking down a dark wizard. Maybe even a few werewolves if necessary."

"Ooo sounds like fun! How long will you be gone?"

"I don't know. I would say under a month, but it may be longer. I'm leaving two days from now once I have the proper equipment I need."

"Okay. Make sure that dark wizard gets what's coming to him, Harry! Kick his ass!"

"Thanks, Sam. Have a great night!" Harry laughed.

It took only a few minutes to reach the floo exits in the Ministry of Magic. After disappearing into a wall of green flames, Harry made it back to his somewhat depressing house. Instead of finding the house with all the lights turned off, Harry saw there were several lit up areas in the kitchen. The young man went toward the room in the house, and saw that he was not alone. His father was sitting at the kitchen table, going over some documents. He appeared to be stressed out, but the younger Potter didn't care whatsoever.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked him.

"Is that how you treat your father, Harry? I'm not all that surprised at your rash behavior, but you could still learn some manners."

"Sometimes I wonder if I am related to you at all. We may look alike, but that's it. We have nothing in common."

"The feeling is mutual, Harry. It seems that despite my good looks and talents, you seemed to have only gained one of those traits. It's too bad, really, I was hoping I would have two boys like me, but it seems that I never will." James sighed.

"Is there a reason why you're here? I'm getting quite tired of you appearing in my house without my permission. Just because Sirius permanently made it possible for the rest of you to floo in, doesn't mean you can just barge in whenever you damn well please."

"Yes it does. This is technically my house since Sirius left it to me in his will, but I gave it to you out of pity, since I knew you would never be able to find as good of a place as this."

"If you only stopped by to insult me, then please get out. I've got enough to worry about as it is."

"Oh I'm sure you do." James Sr. sarcastically responded. "Actually I came by because I need your help."

"Wow. So the great and mighty James Potter needs help from his disgrace of a son? What'd you do? Throw all your money away gambling? Kill someone and bribed your way out of prison? Am I getting close?"

"No you insolent child. I haven't done anything wrong, but I need your help. It is extremely important. I would normally never come to you for help, but considering we don't have much money left, you are my only option."

"What are you talking about?"

"The fortune dried up and I have been reduced to going back to the work force, Harry. That's what I am. talking about." James admitted. Harry was upset that the contents of the vault were gone. There were many books and family heirlooms that Harry would like to hold onto some day, but now they were gone.

"I can't say I'm surprised. You never were good with money, dad. I on the other hand have millions of galleons at my disposal. Maybe you should have saved your money wisely, instead of blowing it on expensive weddings or the latest model of brooms for your oldest son."

"Be that as it may, I did come here to ask you for help." The father seemed to be struggling to keep his emotions under control as he spoke the next few words. "Your mother is dying, Harry."

Harry was stunned at this news. The young man first thought his father was deep in debts with the bank, but after hearing this, he had no idea what to say. His eyes were misting. He sat down in the chair across the table from his father. Soon enough his tears were flowing and there seemed no signs of it stopping. In a rare act of compassion, James Sr. got up from his chair, went over to his son, and put his hand on the boy's shoulder.

"I know, Harry. I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, but she is dying. She's been diagnosed with a rare disorder that will eventually cause her magical core to disappear. Eventually, she will have nothing left, and then die as a result." James said. He was struggling to keep himself together, but had to keep it under control.

"About three years ago, your mother and I noticed that she was behaving abnormally, and would have accidental instances of magic, as if she were a child. When we went to a healer, the they discovered the rare disease in her body. I've been doing everything I can to keep her alive through various treatments, but nothing has permanently fixed the problem. The treatments have been very expensive, and drained all of the money in the family vault. If she doesn't receive treatment soon, she will die. I don't know how much longer she has. One of her last wishes was to see her only daughter marry. She got that wish, Harry, now I want you to grant me one of mine."

Harry looked at his father. The young man could tell that his father was dead serious about this. There was no way he would say something so horrible for it not be true.

"What do you need from me?" Harry asked. He was still trembling from the news.

"I need money, Harry. I don't have the funds necessary to keep your mother alive. I won't lie, son, we only have one last treatment left to try, and if this doesn't work, your mother will be out of options." James then faced his son.

"I know you won't do this for me, I wouldn't either, but do it for her, Harry. I want to try everything I can to save her." Harry nodded in agreement.

"Of course. How soon do you need the money?"

"As soon as possible. Your mother's next treatment is in a week from now."

"How much do you need, dad?" Harry asked. James was a little happy inside that his son wasn't angry with him. He wasn't happy however to ask his son for an extreme amount of money.

"I need 500,000 galleons. That will cover the expenses of the treatment, and the remainder of the bills that we have yet to pay from St. Mungos." Harry didn't say anything, but nodded instead. The young man sighed.

"I can do that. I'll go to Gringotts tomorrow, and transfer the money into your account." James sighed in relief.

"Thank you, son. I'm going to go back to your mother to take care of her. I would appreciate it if you could show up for your mother's operation on Sunday." Harry nodded once again. James then said his thanks one last time before heading to the floo connection in Harry's house.

"Dad? Maybe after this is all over, we can start again? I don't want our relationship to be the way it is now." James was surprised. The relationship between himself and his son was dreadful but the father had always hoped that one day it would fix itself. Now it seems he was going to be given that chance.

"I'd like that, Harry." Harry smiled. "I'll be in touch with details soon. Goodbye, son."

James left the boy's home, and flooed back into the Potter Mansion. As soon as his father left, Harry realized that if he was going to spend his possible last amount of time with his mother, he was going to have to cancel the hunt for Greyback for now. Harry flooed over to Draco Malfoy's residence, which it turns out was the Malfoy Mansion. The young Potter was surprised when none of the Malfoy elves had greeted him considering they always did every single time. Harry began to shout Draco's name throughout the halls of the mansion in hopes of his friend being home. It only took a few minutes to hear some scuffling upstairs, so Harry ran up the stairs and headed towards the bedrooms.

As Harry got closer to where Draco's old bedroom was, the sounds of scuffling started to get louder. It sounded like someone was moving around furniture but trying really hard to not make it sound like they were home. Draco's old room did not have the weird sounds as Harry thought, so he continued onwards. Once again, the sounds continued to get louder, but now it sounded like someone was chewing as if they hadn't eaten in a few days. Harry was getting a little worried so he started opening all the doors around him, but nothing was inside. Finally he approached the farthest room down the hall when he knew that the sounds were coming from inside. Harry grabbed his wand and slowly opened the door.

The scene inside the room was something out of a horror film. Blood was everywhere, body parts were mangled and tossed in different areas, and Harry could tell there was more than one dead body inside. As hard as it was to ignore this amount of gore, Harry looked around to see what that weird sound was. Now that the door was open, Harry was sure with 100% certainty that someone was eating. The sound of flesh being torn off was disgusting. The creature inside was also unmistakable. Even though it was a full fledged werewolf, the color of the hair, and the scars on its back was a dead giveaway. The person who Harry had been hunting for, Greyback, was only a few feet away with his back turned away from the young Auror.

Since the monster was distracted by his prey, Harry carefully opened the door all the way open. The boy then raised his wand a little higher. If he missed his target, then Greyback would escape, or worse, Harry might die or be turned. Before shooting off a spell, the boy casted an anti-apparition charm, and a anti-portkey ward. Now, the Auror was ready, but so was Greyback. The monster heard the spells being casted behind him thanks to his enhanced hearing. To make it seem like nothing was wrong, Greyback continued to eat on the flesh in front of him. Before Harry could take his next breath, Greyback lunged at him with his monstrous hands and almost sliced him in the face. Harry ducked out of the way just in time to run down the hall. Unfortunately, his wand fell out of his hands when he got himself out of the way.

"Shit." Harry said aloud. Greyback seemed to have noticed that the wizard had dropped his wand, and howled with glee in response. The beast's grin grew wide, and the terror in the young man's eyes grew even wider. The only thing to do was run. To face Greyback head on without his wand was suicide. Since the young Potter was not trained in the ways of wandless magic, he had to find another weapon capable of killing the werewolf. The Auror ran down the hall as fast as he could with Greyback hot on his trail. The beast came close to scratching Harry a few times, but he ducked around the vast hallways of the manor. Harry knew that eventually his luck would run out, so he started to guide the monster down a specific hallway towards the room with a secret passageway that Harry knew about. Unfortunately he had never seen it before.

The growls of the beast were shrieking in anger. His attempts to kill the Auror were pathetic. He was a werewolf for a reason, so it was time to go into overtime and murder this annoying wizard. The beast leapt around the corners and ripped the walls apart in order to catch up to the wizard. The gap between the two was becoming narrower by the second with Harry almost reaching the room he need to go to. With his final push, Harry reached the room, shut the door behind him with a ton of force, and locked it as soon as possible. Greyback was beyond angry. He started to claw his way through the door. In minutes, the wooden barrier would be matchsticks on the floor.

Harry knew he was safe for the next few minutes, but he had to find the secret passageway immediately. The young man took in his surroundings and realized that he did make it to the master bedroom of Malfoy manor. During his time as a Death Eater, Lucius hid his belongings in a secret room that led to the bottom of the house from this room. Now where was the switch to get inside?

 _"Okay. Let's think. What's around? There's a bed, several pieces of bedside furniture, a mirror, a closet, a vanishing cabinet, a …"_ Harry thought before he stopped abruptly. There was only one place he could look because the answer was so painfully obvious. The wizard flew open the doors and leapt inside. In seconds, the young man transported to the bottom of the manor.

The room was vast and stocked full of weapons. It seemed Lucius was hellbent on supplying the entire Death Eater clan in case their side needed some extra supplies. Swords and daggers were hanging from the walls, axes were stocked in chests, and death eater clothes were stuffed in drawers of various furniture. The first thing Harry looked for was another wand, but after looking for ten minutes, the young man determined there were none. The next best option was to find a silver sword. There were a ton of swords around, but none of them were silver. Most of them were rusted and had a lot of wear and tear. Next was to locate an axe. Harry tore through various chests to find a silver axe that hopefully was not too heavy for him to lift. He was disappointed because there was only one that he could use, and it was a woodcutting axe. Even though it wasn't much, Harry took the weapon and headed back to the vanishing cabinet.

Harry transported back to the room and realized the room was in shreds. Greyback had absolutely gotten through the door but thankfully he was not present. Harry stepped out of the vanishing cabinet and quietly made his way around the mess in the room. The Auror made his way out and rushed back to the far end of the manor with the axe in hand. If there was any chance of getting his wand back, this would be it. Harry reached the end where his wand had dropped and grabbed it off the ground, but he didn't realize that Greyback had stealthily followed him back. The Auror turned around and was greeted with a vicious growl and a damning slash across his chest. The pain was pulsing throughout his body, and the blood was flowing, but this was not the time to stop. Harry ducked out of the way once again, and sent a blasting charm at the monster's body. The spell sent the creature to the top of the ceiling and then fell to the floor. Seeing his chance, Harry took the silver axe and violently slammed the small weapon into the beast's head over and over again. Blood was splattering everywhere. Thankfully Harry was smart enough to keep his mouth closed. To swallow the blood of a werewolf would also transmit the curse into the unsuspecting victim.

The deed was done. Greyback was dead. Harry pulled the axe out of the monster's skull and then fell down to the floor leaning next to the wall. The Auror took some time to catch his breath while internally celebrating his victory over the death of the last Death Eater. There were none left of Voldemort's original inner circle. He had done the ultimate task of bringing these maniacs to justice, and now he could take some time off and relax. Some time later, Harry got off the ground and made his way to the room with various body parts inside. The young man's worst fears were realized when he discovered the bodies of Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco Malfoy on the floor. They were all dead. Harry had come too late to save them, and there was nothing he could do about it. It seemed that Greyback kept close tabs on the Malfoy family, and struck when the time was right. The pain inside the young man was too much to handle. He sobbed for the loss of his closest friend and the family he sometimes wished he was part of. The death of the Malfoy's hit him hard, but once he started to mourn, Harry realized he was bleeding and needed help.

Since it was too early to head to the ministry, and Harry was injured from the attack, he had to go somewhere safe. He wasn't sure he could have made it to St. Mungos. Harry made his way to the floo network and went straight to Grimmauld Place. When he arrived, the manor was dark and it was apparent that everyone was asleep. Making his way to the nearby couch, Harry limped over and fell onto the piece of furniture when the pain was too much to bear.

"Dobby! Winky!" Harry yelled as loud as he could. Two elves quickly appeared out of thin air.

"Master Harry!" the both of them said in shock.

"Please help me!" Harry pleaded.

"Dobby will be back sir! Winky will watch over Master Harry." Dobby said before he vanished.

"Master Harry please sit up. We must bandage the wound." Winky exclaimed.

As Winky began to help the young Potter, a sound from upstairs came thundering down from the upper floor. James Potter Sr. seemed to have awoken from his sleep. He quickly made his way over to the living room and saw what was happening.

"What is going on here, Winky? Where is Dobby?" James asked with some urgency.

"Master Harry is hurt, Master James! Dobby went to retrieve bandages for Master Harry!" James was suddenly overwhelmed with concern for his son and rushed to his side. As he approached the couch, the man could see Harry bleeding profusely from his chest wound. Dobby suddenly returned with the bandages and murtlap essence and began applying both to Harry with Winky assisting.

"What happened, Harry? Who did this to you?" James asked while the two elves worked.

"I was investigating a case about Greyback." Harry said with some grunts because of the pain of the murtlap essence. "The Malfoy's were in trouble, but after you told me about mum, I wanted to tell them I couldn't do the case. I went to the Malfoy Manor and saw them all dead. Greyback was there. He attacked me by slashing his claws into my chest, and I killed him with an axe."

"So you were attacked by Greyback, the most vicious werewolf in the entire wizarding world, and came here? ARE YOU INSANE!? You have the curse of the werewolf!" James screeched at his son. While this was going on, Dobby and Winky had finished and left without anyone noticing.

"Did you not hear anything I just said? I was attacked by his claws, not from a bite! You should be thanking me! I killed the last Death Eater in Voldemort's inner circle! I thought you be glad the bastard was gone, but instead you only care about me maybe having the werewolf curse!"

"I don't want to hear it, Harry! Have you not seen the amount of blood on you? I bet that's Greybacks and you may have swallowed some of his blood! You are infected, and I won't have some rabid monster come here to attack our home! Get out of the manor immediately!" James yelled.

Harry didn't need to be told twice. With some amount of struggle, the young man picked himself up from the couch and went over to the fireplace.

"Don't come back here, Harry! I know the beast will take over and you will kill everyone you know!"

"That's fine with me! I should have known you would do something to make me hate you again, and you've succeeded!"

"Don't bother coming to your mother's operation on Sunday! As of this moment, you are no longer my son! I will not have a bastard monster like you disgrace the Potter name!"

"FINE! GOOD LUCK TRYING TO SAVE MUM'S LIFE WITHOUT MY HELP! GO FUCK YOURSELF, JAMES POTTER!" Harry yelled with all of his might before he left.

Harry flooed into 12 Grimmauld Place with a fall to the ground. He could never handle flooing like he could with flying or apparating. While his wounds still hurt, they were at least clean. Harry made his way up the stairs to his bedroom and removed his clothes. The shower was turned on and the young man showered the spattered blood from his body. Once everything was gone, Harry dried himself off, got out of the shower, and went straight to bed.

The next morning came quickly. Harry went downstairs to search for his wand that he left on the couch. After grabbing it, and performing some mild numbing spells on his chest, Harry went back upstairs to get ready for work. He didn't have time to grab breakfast at home, so he would grab something in the Ministry of Magic. Harry flooed to the ministry and tried to make his way over to the Auror department without wincing too much. He found it to be impossible. It only took a few minutes to arrive at work, but to him it seemed to take forever. When he made it to the office, Sam ran over to the young man and hugged him as carefully as possible.

"HARRY! My god are you okay? I heard what happened!"

"Wow calm down, Sam! Now what are you talking about?" Harry asked as calmly as he could.

"The Daily Prophet said you were attacked by Greyback! Are you okay? How bad does it hurt?"

"I'm sore, but I will be better soon. Wait! How did the Prophet find out about this?"

"You mean you haven't seen the paper?" Sam asked. Harry shook his head. "You're not going to like this, Harry." she said as she gave him the morning paper. When Harry read the title, the amount of rage in his body grew to a new level he never thought possible.

 ** _HARRY POTTER ATTACKED BY FENRIR GREYBACK: THE INSIDE STORY_**

The article was not pleasant. It detailed him as a possible murderer instead of someone who would have brought him into the ministry for questioning. What was even more damning was the testimony given by his estranged father. James Potter Sr. leaked the story to the press and made more than one mentioning that Harry was hurt by Greyback, and may even have the curse of the werewolf. The article continued on from statements from his brother, and others inside the ministry, to offer their thoughts on Harry's actions. That and the Daily Prophet had to ask whether or not it would be acceptable for him to continue to work in the Ministry of Magic at all. Most of the testimonies said "no". Harry noticed at the bottom that the article was written by Rita Skeeter, the most vile reporter in the Prophet. He would have to speak to her at some point and possibly sue her for slander, but that wasn't important right now.

"I'm so sorry, Harry. I can't imagine what you're feeling right now." Sam stated to her boss.

"Thanks, Sam." The young man said while he sighed. "I guess it's only a matter of time before …"

"POTTER! IN MY OFFICE NOW!" The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, said as he poked his head inside the Auror department.

" … before the Minister finds out." Harry said while finishing his sentence. After sighing once again, Harry asked Sam to start getting his things together in a few moving boxes. There was no way he wouldn't be sacked from his job today. If Harry knew anything about the Ministry it was they had this very strict rule: don't hire werewolves or vampires. He was doomed, but had no choice but to leave the office and start heading to the Minister's office.

Along the way, Harry received a lot of stares from the other workers. None of them seemed friendly. A few people yelled at him to leave, but there was nothing he could do to stop them from saying these things. Werewolves weren't ever seen as second class citizens. If anything, they were portrayed as vicious monsters who have no control of their actions which is ridiculous because there is a wolfsbane potion that causes the cursed to be in control of their actions when the transformation occurs. What's even more ridiculous is that the ministry even supplies the wolfsbane potions! Harry was not going to focus on this lunacy currently because he honestly had more pressing issues.

It seemed to take forever to arrive in the Minister's office since everyone pretty much stopped what they were doing and made him feel uncomfortable. Some of his fellow co-workers were among those in the scared crowd, which he found extremely annoying. When he approached the lifts, Harry discovered that no one wanted to get into one of the elevators with him. That was fine with him. It only took two minutes for the lift to take Harry to the top floor of the Minister's office. The average man would have been intimidated to enter because Rose Potter would have been working in the front, and had a nasty reputation for guarding the Minister, but she was on her honeymoon, and Harry was extremely grateful for that. He really didn't want to get into a row with his sister.

"Hello, Mr. Potter. The Minister is expecting you. Please follow me this way." The Minister's temporary replacement secretary said as he was led to the back. Harry never got her name. The secretary knocked on the door twice and the door was opened abruptly by magic obviously.

"Sit down, Mr. Potter!" Cornelius Fudge ordered and was not friendly about it at all.

"I assume you saw this morning's highly exaggerated article in the paper slandering my credibility. Right sir?" Harry asked.

"You're damn right it's about the paper, Potter! What were you thinking going after a werewolf and letting him injure you?"

"Not to be rude, sir, but you have no business poking into the affairs of the Auror department. You may require us to become your bodyguards from time to time, but you cannot control our department and you have no jurisdiction whatsoever. So why don't we get to the real reason why I'm here, and you can just fire me for possibly being a "dangerous creature" even though I know that I am not one."

"How dare you, Mr. Potter! I will admit I was going to let you go, but that's no reason to be hostile with me, when I am simply doing my job!"

"If you were really doing your job you would get the ministry healers to check my blood for traces of lycanthropy, but that would embarrass the Daily Prophet for once again spreading lies, and you can't have that because it would fall on you for being an incompetent politician. Also, you're an idiot, sir, and can't do anything without certain people bribing you to do their bidding."

"That's it, Potter! I no longer care if you are a werewolf or not! You are hereby terminated from your position from the Auror department, and you will clean out your desk immediately. Now get out of my office!"

"Just so you know, sir, Greyback managed to kill the Malfoy family before I was able to end his miserable life. I would send a team of Aurors over to the mansion and have them examine the scene. They also deserve a proper burial, and I am going to attend, so don't try to stop me."

"Fine, Potter, I don't care what it takes you to get out of my office, just leave and I will grant you permission to attend the funeral."

"Thank you, sir. I would wish you a prosperous reign as Minister, but I would be lying. I can only hope that the magical deities do something to fix this broken government by sacking your incompetent ass." Harry said as he slammed the door shut. The receptionist at the front wisely decided not to say anything to Harry, and went back to work as if she didn't hear the Minister have a shouting match with the young man. Harry briefly heard the Minister shouting back at him as the door closed, but didn't look back as he made his way to the Auror department.

The stares continued as Harry made his way back to his recently empty office, but at least the idiots inside the ministry didn't stop altogether. Harry entered the department with some irritation, and his co-workers could see that it was not the right time to give him flack about possibly being a nasty creature. Sam was the only one who approached him. His boxes of things were left on top of the counter.

"I'm sorry to see you go, boss." Sam said with some sadness in her voice.

"I'm not your boss anymore, Sam. I'm just plain Harry Potter now."

"You'll always be my boss to me, Harry. I owe you so much for giving me this job, and helping Joe and I quite a few times in the past when you didn't need to. I don't care if you do end up being a werewolf, you're an amazing person, and if you really do need anything, Joe and I will help."

"Thanks, Sam. I'll miss you." Harry said while giving his old co-worker a hug. "Take care of yourself. Maybe sometime the three of us can grab dinner?"

"I'd like that. Goodbye, Harry. I'll see you around." Sam said while shedding a few tears. She went back to work and Harry grabbed his things, shrunk them down, and put them in his pocket.

The floo exits to the Ministry were right next to the Auror department, so leaving would not be a hassle. Harry could hear the minister in the background exclaiming that the "werewolf" problem was taken care of. Werewolf. Yeah right. There was no way that the young man could be a monster. He was careful, knew what he was doing, and healed himself up to the best of his abilities. Harry wasn't worried because he did deliver Fenrir Greyback's head on a silver platter, so the people of the world should be thankful that this bastard was dead!

Harry turned away from the ministry and stepped through the floo, removed his shrunken things from his pocket, threw them into the corner, and made his way back to bed. He didn't care if it was morning. Since he had already dealt with the prejudices that were surrounding himself today at work, sleeping in his bed seemed welcoming. Within moments the young man had fallen asleep, with his problems far behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** This story is 100% alternate universe and most, if not all, of the characters in this story are out of character as well. Also I don't own anything by J.K. Rowling and I am not trying to steal her characters, plots, or moments within the books that she has written. This is my own story and I also claim to not copy off of anyone else's work either in the process.

 **Summary:** Life is funny sometimes, but Harry Potter doesn't think so. What starts off as a nasty breakup between himself and his girlfriend, turns out to be an interesting turn in his life. Or is it? M rating is for swearing, implied situations, and violence.

 **Chapter 2**

 _3 Months Later_

Harry James Potter was enjoying his time away from the Ministry of Magic on the coast near the outskirts of Cornwall. Most days he would conjure a relaxed back beach chair, bring either a book, a bottle of firewhisky, or sometimes both, and just stay near the ocean all day. Today he decided to shake it up a little and swim in the ocean. It's not like he had anything better to do after all.

The only house nearby was currently owned by one of Harry's only remaining friends, Bill Weasley, and his wife Fleur Delacour-Weasley. The recently married couple had allowed Harry to stay at their house ever since he was forcibly removed from his position as an Auror, and he had his house taken away by James Potter Sr. The young man had refused their offers several times to stay with them, at first, because he felt he would be intruding on their new life together. That and Harry didn't want the possibility of running into other Weasleys. Bill and Fleur wouldn't have anything of it, however, and practically begged him to stay. Harry joked that they were only asking him to stay because he was extremely wealthy and could pay off their debts. They laughed but did ask Harry to pay for rent. 100 galleons a month may have seemed like a lot for any other wizard, but Harry knew they were in a rough spot financially, so he didn't mind giving his money to his friends. Harry promised them that as soon as he found a new house to live in he would move. Fleur was not thrilled about hearing this, so Harry consented to stay longer. He wasn't going to refuse an offer from a Veela after all.

The funny thing was that Harry already did have a new house ready to go, with all new furniture, but didn't tell Bill or Fleur that.

Almost immediately after being sacked from the ministry, Harry went to St. Mungos to get his blood tested for any traces of lycanthropy. Just as Harry suspected, there weren't any, but that wasn't all. Since Greyback did hack away at Harry's flesh, the small traces of werewolf DNA embedded into the monster's claws transferred over to the ex-Auror. Thankfully Harry would not become a vicious creature with every full moon, but he did gain some new abilities.

Harry's sense of smell was almost too powerful to withstand in the beginning, but he was given an extensive amount of training from Bill Weasley since he too was given these abilities from a werewolf attack. Harry's sight improved tenfold which allowed him to discard his glasses after wearing them for almost two decades. Also, Harry now had some improved feats of strength, could hear better than the average human, and he could detect the heartbeat of humans from nearby or far away. This ability was Harry's favorite because he no longer needed a reason to doubt if people were lying to him; he would already be able to tell. There was one negative side effect though. Harry no longer liked to have any meat cooked medium well as he had before. Now it was only raw. He thought this craving for raw meat was disgusting but learned to keep his stomach from becoming ill over time.

After James Potter Sr. had disowned Harry as one of the family, the goblins at Gringotts removed him from ever trying to access the Potter Family Vault. Ha. Like he would ever even bother going there at all since it was nearly empty. While it was true that Harry's father did spend the money on his mother's medical treatments, Harry was hesitant about giving his parents any money. Why should he? His father disowned him, and his mother did nothing to stop it! James Potter II even came up with the idea of putting the vault under a fidelius charm, but his idea was thrown out because the goblins would have crucified him if their vaults were tampered with. The moron even tried to do it on his own but ended up being bald for a month. When Harry found out about this, he laughed. His brother really was an idiot.

Lily Potter's health was declining, but she was currently still alive. The final treatment could not be performed because the Potters were not able to afford it, and this took a toll on the entire family. Even Harry. The hesitant feeling about giving his parents any money was still present, but the guilt won him over in the end. Harry tried to give his estranged father the money necessary to perform the surgery while seeing his mother in the hospital, but James refused by saying he would not accept any money that was in possession of a monster. James II and Rose did agree with their father's decision, but neither one of his siblings remembered that Remus Lupin, one of the dear friends of the Potter Family, was a werewolf himself, and even he helped out with Lily's payments from time to time. Harry did want to point this huge flaw out to his father, brother, and sister, but chose not to. Some battles just weren't fighting for. Harry hadn't seen his mother since, and he knew her time was running out. He would have to visit his mother alone so that no one else would remove him from the room.

The Minister of Magic had denied Harry any job in the ministry whatsoever. It wasn't enough when Harry even provided medical paperwork to the corrupt official that even clearly stated he was not a monster, nor was he dangerous. Just like before, the minister couldn't bother to deal with the backlash that could threaten his career, and if the Daily Prophet was embarrassed because of this stunt, then it would not look good for all parties involved. It wasn't suspicious at all when the minister was given an exclusive interview about Harry being a monster the next day. The Ministry of Magic was full of bigots, but Harry didn't care. The young man was very well off, and never could work again if he wanted to, so why would he worry about losing his job?

Rose came back to work two weeks after the honeymoon was over, and her time away only seemed to make her even bitchier than usual. Why? The answer is obvious: she was incredibly pissed of at the possibility of being related to a creature/human hybrid. As if she didn't hate him enough already, Rose was determined to get Harry fired from his job as soon as she returned from her honeymoon. She never got the chance, and that made her even more pissed off. Rose even went out of her way to send Harry some nasty howlers about being careless or being unworthy of being related to her. Her husband seemed to be indifferent to Rose's obsession with Harry, or just didn't care. Harry hoped it was neither of those things and Michael was just slowly realizing that Rose is a nightmare.

After spending some time outside, Harry decided to come into the house to grab some food. He was the only one in the house currently as both Fleur and Bill were at work. However Fleur would always be back earlier than her husband, and she was due right about ...

"'Ello 'Arry. 'Ow are you doing?" Fleur said as she stepped through the floo.

"Hey, Fleur." Harry said while smiling and giving her a hug. "I'm doing good thanks. I'm just glad I don't have to work at the ministry right now. No offense. How are you managing?"

"De job is 'ard, 'Arry. De Minister es making it 'ard for 'alf-breeds like you und me to get much work. Even ambassadors are getting cutbacks." Fleur said. Her job was inside the Magical French Embasy as a junior representative of France.

"Oh. I'm sorry I didn't realize it was that bad. I was just being somewhat bitter from being let go. Plus I know the ministry is cracking down on half-breeds because of me. I truly didn't mean to make it difficult for you."

"Es not your fault, 'Arry. Someone 'ould 'ave done it eventually, und de minister es racist against us. He should be ... umm ... how you say?"

"Impeached?"

"Es! Empeached."

"I know. Believe me, I wanted that asshole sacked as soon as I met him. I'm just glad the Malfoys decided to stop funding his campaign before it was too late." Harry said. As soon as he mentioned the Malfoy family, Harry immediately felt some sadness for his friend and parents who he sometimes wished they were his. They were dead all because of that bastard monster Greyback the werewolf. The funeral service was too short in Harry's opinion, but that could have been because he was truly sad from their deaths. The young man hung his head somewhat down.

"'Arry. Look at moi." Fleur said. Harry reluctantly listened to her. "'Is death is not your fault. Please 'ealize dat dere 'as nothing you could 'ave done. Greyback es dead und you 'aved many people 'ecause of it."

"I know. Trust me I do. It's just not easy to let Draco go. He was the brother I never had."

"What about James?"

"Ha. That's funny." Harry said sarcastically. "No, I haven't considered James to be my brother ever since I was seven years old. I don't remember him being nice to me since then."

"What 'appened when you were seven?" Fleur curiously asked. Harry sighed in response. He really didn't like to get into his past with anyone, but since he was the one who brought it up, he had no choice but to explain to Fleur.

"Well ... It was ..." Harry tried to say but stopped when Bill Weasley walked through the floo. He tripped out like he normally did every day and landed on the floor with a thud. Fleur used to think this was funny but stopped laughing after a while when she realized this would be happening for the rest of her life. Harry was guilty of tripping through the floo also, but Bill was a lot worse than he was. After picking himself up, Bill greeted his wife and then turned his attention towards Harry.

"So how many bottles did you down today, Harry?"

"Ha ha, Bill. You do realize I do other things besides drink and lay on the beach, right?" Harry said as he went over to his friend and hugged him.

"I don't know, Harry. Maybe if you did something else for a change then I wouldn't have to ask constantly. Then again, why don't you ever just go on a crazy night on the town and just spend a million galleons?"

"If I ever did spend that much, I wouldn't want to ever do it again." Harry said while smirking. "Besides who would I ever want to have with me on a night on the time except you, Bill? That is, unless .. Hey Fleur?" Harry shouted.

"NON! I told you 'de answer 'es non, 'Arry!" Fleur shouted from down the hall.

"Damn. Well, there goes another attempt at getting to hook up with your wife, Bill. My love life is just doomed." Harry said while feigning sadness.

"You ever hook up with her, Harry, and you'll be the one who's going to be doomed." Bill said with some seriousness. "How's your Mum?" He said while changing the subject. Harry didn't answer for a few moments before he finally responded.

"I wouldn't know."

"You've never been yet? I thought you said you were going two days ago!"

"I just ... I can't, Bill. I know I wasn't her favorite child, but, I don't think I can go see her yet. I've spent years trying to make my parents give me some kind of attention, but didn't get any, and now ... now I have to give my Mum all the support I can give."

"Is that really so bad, Harry?" Bill hesitantly asked. "I know you weren't that close with her, but, she's the only Mum you'll ever have. If my Mum was in her situation, I'd ..."

"If your Mum was in any kind of situation like my Mum is, then she wouldn't be satisfied unless everyone was there to give support. Our situations are not alike, Bill. You're the only Weasley smart enough to not fall for my family's bullshit. Your parents love all four of them, while barely tolerating me. Ron worships the ground my brother walks on, Fred and George are always hanging around James so I assume they're close, Charlie and Percy are good friends with Rose, Mum, and Dad for some reason, and then there's you."

"You forgot someone, Harry." Bill pointed out while raising an eyebrow.

"No, I didn't. Unless you mean the ghoul in the attic, but I don't think it likes anyone." Harry said.

"Harry, she doesn't worship the ground James walks on. They're just friends. Also, she's not as close to Rose as you think."

Harry didn't say anything and just pretended his friend hadn't said anything at all. Bill sighed in response. He really wanted to get his point across without upsetting his friend.

"Do you think you'll start dating again?" Bill asked. Harry only sighed and shook his head as a response.

"No, I don't think I want to. Hermione was my longest relationship and I don't want to go into another without knowing the person I'm with will go beyond being boyfriend and girlfriend. Plus I don't know anyone I would like to date anyway."

"'Ont want to wat?" Fleur asked as she came back into the room and sat at the table. Bill explained what they were talking about, and his wife decided to voice her opinion too.

"Oui, Bill, 'Arry should get out more. 'Elationships are 'onderful, 'Arry. Why not 'ake a chance?" Harry sighed before he answered.

"I respect both of your decisions about my love life, but I really don't want to put myself out there again. I don't want another girl stolen away by James, or chased out crying by Rose. I don't think that's unreasonable, but apparently, it is! It's ended one way or the other with each girlfriend I've had. It just proves to me that there are a lot of people who are easy to be manipulated or unfaithful. I don't want another floozy."

"So there really is no one, Harry, that you want to even consider dating? Even if it's a small part of you?" Bill asked.

"No. None whatsoever."

"What about, Ginny?" Harry was about to flat out respond with a "NO!" but Fleur beat him to it.

"Oui, 'Arry, oui! Go for Ginny. You 'ill like 'er for sure."

"I'm not talking about this with you two again. You already approached me about this, and I turned the idea down. Then you came to me again and I shot it down again. You already know my answer, so don't ask."

"Come on, Harry. It's been, what, almost four months since you broke up with Hermione? Why not give my sister a chance? I know she likes you and even invited you to coffee. Plus she's really nice and ..."

"Stop, Bill. Just stop!" Harry said with a little bit of anger. He had to take a moment to calm himself before continuing. "You may think you know your sister, but you don't know her like I do. Out of all your family members, I despise her the most. Do you have any idea what kind of hell I had to go through at school thanks to James, Rose, Ron, and Ginevra?"

"I know only what Ginny has told me, and what Ron has boasted about sometimes. Your siblings haven't said anything like that, but maybe that's because they didn't want my parents to overhear what they've done. But I do know she came to you and apologized, and she did try at the wedding but you bit her head off."

"Well, then she hasn't said anything at all! I don't care how trivial she makes it seem to you, but she isn't going to get any sympathy from me! I bet she only told you about just being a bully to me, and not mention anything else! I don't want anyone like that in my life. I've already got four asshole family members, and I don't want to open the door for someone like her come in and make it worse for me."

"Harry she's not like that anymore. Try to put the past behind you and move on."

"And ... what? The mentioning that she's changed makes it necessary for me to go have coffee with her and just chat as if nothing happened? I don't care about her apology because like I told her already if she was really sorry then she would stop being friends with James or not have been in a relationship with him at all."

"That's not what I'm saying at all, Harry!"

"Really? Then how did you intend for it to sound, Bill?!" Harry shouted back at his friend. Fleur and Bill were both a little shocked after hearing Harry talk to them both like this. After realizing that he may have gone a little overboard by yelling, he apologized and abruptly left via apparating.

"You think we were too hard on him?" Bill asked.

"Perhaps we were. We should apologize when we can." Fleur stated.

Harry still didn't want to see his mom yet because it was not in the right state of mind to handle seeing her, so he went somewhere a little more melancholy. The young man appeared at the edge of Hogsmeade and started making his way down the broken path towards the ominous building in the background: The Shrieking Shack. The journey to the shack was not long but was filled with many obstacles along the way to prevent him from proceeding. Sirius had set up multiple charms and curses on the building so that no one would find him. This had made it the perfect place for his godfather to hide while he was on the run from the ministry.

When Harry was only a year old, Voldemort had stormed the Potter manor in order to try and murder James and Lily Potter. The couple had defied him three times since the Dark Lord had risen to power and he wanted to make an example out of them. It was pure revenge and nothing more. The front door was blown down from a barrage of blasting curses and several Death Eaters made their way inside. The traitor, Peter Pettigrew, had sold out the Potter's location to Voldemort and as such was given the privilege of storming the house first. To say that James and Lily were shocked was an understatement. James realized that there was not enough time to react properly to this betrayal, so he blasted Peter way across the hallway towards the bottom floor windows. He fell out and broke his neck, but was still alive nonetheless. As the remainder of the Death Eaters began their attack on Potter Manor, several members of the Order of the Phoenix arrived to bring in assistance. There were losses on both sides, but the Order seemed to have the upper hand until Voldemort showed his face. The wizards and witches of the light were tossed around as if they were rag dolls and their life essence left them in a flash. Those that remained, minus the Potters, were powerless to do anything, and since they were defenseless, Voldemort killed them.

In a matter of minutes, Sirius Black, a family friend of the Potters, appeared with a new batch of Aurors and stormed on the house. The numbers were once again in the Order of Phoenix's favor, and Voldemort, realizing he was running out of time, dashed upstairs to take care of James, Lily, little James II, and newborn Harry. What happened next no one understood. Voldemort blasted the killing curse at the four Potters and the spell was reflected back at him. The dark wizard was killed instantly and no one could understand why or how. James and Lily walked away stunned but thankful that Voldemort was finally dead.

As the Potters went down the stairs, the young mother and father witnessed Sirius Black torturing Peter Pettigrew even though he was defenseless. The Auror beat the rat within the inch of his life, but it wasn't enough. Feeling betrayed by someone he considered a close personal friend, Sirius pulled out his wand and performed the killing curse, ending his life instantly. James and Lily were shocked and speechless. The nearby Aurors noticed Sirius killing Peter and attempted to arrest him, but Black escaped. Since then, Sirius spent his life on the run. By the time Harry was old enough to learn that Sirius was his godfather, he didn't hate him at all or even considered him a criminal. The man wanted justice and he got it. There was no wrong in it and couldn't understand why his mother and father thought otherwise.

Throughout his childhood, Harry was visited by his godfather, and the two of them had the best of times. That was until James and Lily found out. The Potters placed a fidelius charm on their house and Sirius didn't see Harry again until years later when he started Hogwarts. Sirius was there for everything and Harry often felt like the older man was his true father. It wasn't until Harry's fifth year when Sirius' luck ran out. Kingsley Shacklebolt and Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody were able to track Black to a hidden cave near Hogsmeade. The two Aurors brought him to the ministry. He was immediately sentenced to death via dementor kiss, and then instantly sent through the vortex located in the lower floors of the Department of Mysteries. Only the soulless, or the truly wicked witches and wizards were ever sent through. Sirius was considered to be both.

Sirius' death was hard on Harry, but it was harder on him at the start of the sixth year when his brother James revealed to the entire school that Sirius Black was his godfather. The reaction was horrible. It even made the other Slytherins seem tame in comparison. Members from other houses would personally go out of their way to call Harry such things as "a future murderer in the making", "how could you associate with him?", "You're just as bad as Black!", And finally "He deserved his fate! I'm glad he's gone." The professors weren't any better, but none of them would say anything to his face. Their displeased faces told the young man everything he needed to know.

There was no one who Harry could rely on after Sirius' death because he felt so alone. To take his mind off things, Harry tried getting into the dating game, but he quickly regretted this idea. His first date was with an older girl, Cho Chang, during the Christmas party hosted by Horace Slughorn. Only the cream of the crop in the school was invited to this party, and Harry felt honored that he was invited at all. It was the first time when he felt that he was given any recognition for his hard work at school. When Harry arrived, the host was confused as to why he was able to come in at all, because any student that was not invited could not come through the magical barrier. When Harry stated that he truly was invited, the Slytherin discovered that he was only invited because of his brother and sister. The blow was hard on him. Cho seemed to be embarrassed to be with Harry after realizing that he wasn't really invited at all. She left him dateless the first chance she could.

Before Harry could storm out, Rose appeared with her date and started demanding drinks from him since he was supposed to be the hired help. Things started to fall into place as soon as the comment left her mouth. Harry should have known that something was up when he was invited to this party. His invitation was also different from everyone else's but he didn't realize it until too late. The people who were invited received black invitations, while several others received white invitations. Apparently, the white invitations were those who were chosen to be the servers at the party, but he was never informed of this little detail at all. Rose then made sure to point out that Harry was not in his server uniform and the instructions clearly said he was supposed to wear it at all times. Harry's invitation didn't come with instructions. Rose stole them and made her brother look like an ass. Most of the students realized what had happened at this point, and started laughing at his confusion.

After absorbing humiliation and hate from his fellow students, Harry couldn't take any more and left. Even though he was struggling to hold in his anger and sadness, he was able to make it back to the Slytherin Common Room. Well … almost. When Harry arrived within mere feet of the door, James appeared. He was waiting for him with his date for the night, Ginny Weasley, her bother Ron, and his date, Luna Lovegood. It was a little surprising that James was even here at all since he had graduated the year before, but Harry assumed he was invited even though he was out. This was not what Harry needed right now.

After attempting to get by, James blocked the way and demanded he go back to the party to serve him some drinks. James knew that Harry was only invited to be a server, so he wanted to rub it in a little bit that he was actually invited and his brother wasn't. Ron thought this comment was hilarious and shoved Harry to the side as he and Luna walked on by. Luna made some strange comment about his wackspurts being missing near his head on her way out, and Harry assumed this was an insult of some sort. James wanted a little more humiliation than Ron did, so he wouldn't let Harry by until his brother groveled at his feet and begged him to go inside. Harry refused at first but knew eventually he was going to give in. James was stubborn about getting his way, and Ginny seemed too quiet to tell her boyfriend to lay off. After using his wand to get Harry to kneel down and beg from the pressure, James released his brother from the spell and walked past him. Ginny didn't say anything to Harry as Luna had done, but she didn't try to stick up for him either. After having enough humiliation for one night, Harry retired to his bedroom and didn't come out for the rest of the weekend.

Harry snapped out of his less than pleasant trip down memory lane and moved onward to the Shrieking Shack. It took only minutes for him to get within the wards. Once he was inside, Harry didn't bother trying to get into the secret passage. He simply apparated into the shack itself. This was his new home, and had lived decided to live in it a few weeks ago, but hadn't been inside the shack yet. The house was exactly as Sirius had left it last, which made Harry feel right at home. Sirius had turned the entire shack into an inside mansion that was worthy of any successful Slytherin. Greens, silvers, and black colored walls and furniture ran wild within the space. The furniture was all bought with Sirius' family vault, and all of the chairs were extremely comfy. Especially the couches. The vast fireplace was still near the back, and the massive kitchen was still as clean as the young man had seen it last. The master bedroom was still as huge as ever, and the self-cleaning linens in the bed looked as if they were begging to be wrapped up in. After cleaning himself up from all the dirt outside the shack, Harry decided to retire for a few hours.

It was the evening when Harry woke up. The light from outside was gone and the night was in full swing. Even though Harry was hesitant to make his way to the hospital, he knew that his Mum was doing terrible. Without much choice, Harry apparated away to St. Mungo's. When he arrived inside the hospital, the young man made his way over to the front desk.

"Can I help you, sir?" The receptionist asked from behind her desk.

"Yes, I am looking for Lily Potter's room."

"Oh! Are you her son?"

"I'm not James Potter if that's what you're really asking." Harry said with his eyes narrowing at the woman.

"Could you possibly ask him for an autograph when you see him again? I'm a big fan!"

"Can you please tell me where Lily Potter's room is?" Harry asked with some anger.

"So will you ask him or not?"

"Look miss. I'm sure James has been here a bunch of times already and he will most likely be back. If you want an autograph that bad, go ask him yourself! Besides, I'm not on good terms with my brother anyway, so I'm not going to ask him for a damn autograph just to make his ego grow any more obnoxious than it already is!"

"Oh. Well, then she is in room 12 down the hall. Enjoy your stay sir." The receptionist said with some disappointment in her voice.

Harry wanted to growl in frustration at the woman but decided not to. Of course, James would make his presence a giant spectacle anywhere he went. Harry already got enough bullshit from him already so he really didn't want to deal with his brother's crazy quidditch fans. It only took a minute to reach his mum's room but he stopped right before he entered. He heard voices. Familiar voices. And there were a bunch of them.

 _"Just fucking great. The one time I come and see her, the rest of the family is there too."_ Harry thought. The young man really didn't want to go inside the room now. He decided to head on down to the cafeteria and get some food to pass the time. There wasn't much to choose from considering the food hall was about to close, but Harry didn't care. He grabbed his sandwich and chips and sat down near the entrance.

 _"I wonder how many times the rest of the family has been there already? I guess it doesn't matter at all. If Mum had wanted me to be there, she would have asked. After botching up my name again of course. It's not like Remus could have told me or something. I'm sure he has already seen mum so why not pass on the information to me?"_ Harry thought once again.

 _"I wonder how long I should be in here before the family leaves? I wonder how many of them are here? Should I even go in there at all since I know they're here? No, I said I would go, and I'm going to stay."_ He thought.

Harry looked around and saw that it was a ghost town in the cafeteria. He realized the cleaning staff was trying to clean up the mess hall around him, so Harry got up and left. The young man began to make his way back to the room his Mum and family were. The journey was over too quickly for Harry. He was right in front of the door and the voices from before had not left. Realizing he had no other choice, Harry pushed open the door and took in what was before him. Lily Potter was in her bed with a bunch of equipment hooked up to her, his father was sitting in a nearby chair looking down, his brother was staring out the window while obviously being in deep thought, his sister was not present (thank Merlin) but Remus Lupin was, and so was ... well well well! He certainly wasn't expecting this! Hermione was also in the room and she was definitely starting to show her pregnancy.

 _"I knew it! That little whore was pregnant after all. Rose and James are such fucking idiots. I wonder if James did the right thing and propose? Ha. Wow, I almost doubted myself. Of course, that asshole didn't bother."_ Harry thought.

"What the hell are you doing here?" James Potter Sr. said to his estranged son. All eyes were on him now.

"Believe it or not Mr. Potter, this woman is still the person who gave birth to me, so I feel I should do the right thing and come see her."

"She may have brought you into this world, Harry, but that doesn't mean she wants to see you now. You are not our son, and therefore, not our problem any longer. There's no reason for you to even be here." Harry's ex-father said. "In fact, if you don't leave immediately, I will see that the hospital staff show you out!"

"Yeah, Harry!" James Potter II said with a sneer. "Mum is better off without you! You're not wanted here!"

"James, honey, perhaps you should calm down." Hermione said somewhat quietly.

"Fuck you, Hermione! I'll do what I want!" James yelled. She immediately became withdrawn and everyone could tell her feelings were hurt. Remus had a shocked face as if he had never seen this side of James Jr. before. Harry would have cared about Hermione's situation, but she broke his heart and chose her idiotic fate by going with his brother.

"That's enough, son! Your anger should be directed at Harry and not Hermione!" James Sr. said. He then rose from his seat and slapped James II. "Mind yourself. Your mother is in critical condition, and fighting with your … Hermione … is not helping!"

Harry looked over to his mother the moment James Sr. announced that she was in critical condition. The situation only seemed more real after hearing that. While tearing himself away, Harry couldn't help but notice that his ex-father purposely didn't mention that Hermione was his brother's girlfriend or fiancé. He smirked slightly without anyone noticing. James Sr. must have been really embarrassed that his son was bringing in a bastard into this world, and that made Harry even happier.

"Perhaps you should come back at a later time, Harry?" Remus asked.

"Why?"

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean, Harry."

"Why should I come back later, Remus? I was against coming here from the start because I would more than likely run into you people. I honestly wasn't expecting any kind of different treatment from you all. Why would you bother changing anyway? It's so much better to dump your anger and frustration on me than to look at yourselves and realize you all are extremely fucked up in your own way."

"If that's how you really feel Harry, then you don't deserve to see Lily! Get out of this room before I alert the doctors!" James Sr. shouted.

"Yeah, no one wants you here, Harry!" James Potter II said.

"You already said that once before, James. You should really work on your material." Harry sneered back.

James ran over to his ex-brother and started to swing towards Harry's head, but he never made it that far. Harry had silently cast a protego spell when James wasn't looking, and the oaf broke his hand while trying to punch him. The moron of the Potter family fell to the floor in excruciating pain, but Harry couldn't be bothered to give him any assistance or pity.

"Well, I can see that coming by here was a mistake. I'll leave, but don't expect me to come back!" Harry shouted back at the people who were supposed to be part of his family with the exceptions of Remus and Hermione. When Harry walked out the door, he could hear someone from behind trying to catch up. He already knew who it was because of the smell of her perfume.

"Buzz off, Hermione."

"You don't have to be rude, Harry."

"Oh yes I do, Granger! You are in no position to talk to me and I am trying to ignore you as much as possible. So why don't we just pretend we never saw each other and move on?"

"I would, but I need to ask a favor, Harry." Harry laughed.

"You need a favor from me? Ha! That's rich, Hermione. You have some nerve to ask me to do anything for you."

"I realize the irony, Harry, but I still need your help." Hermione angrily admitted to her ex.

"Oh yeah? What could you possibly need from me? No, wait, let me guess!" Harry said mockingly. "You're going to ask me for money for the baby. Right?" Hermione looked down at the floor for a minute before answering.

"Yes." She said quietly.

"So James isn't supporting you, I take it?"

"No."

"Hmm well, that's too bad, Hermione. I told you a long time ago that my brother is a complete ass and will leave whomever he's with for some other floozy when it suits him. You were once the object of his desire, and now that he has you pregnant, he will soon move on while you raise his kid alone."

"You already know what my answer is, Hermione. Now go back to your embarrassment of a boyfriend. Oh, wait. He's not your boyfriend according to my ex-father. I'm guessing you're more like his pregnant hooker. Correct?" Harry said. Hermione tried to slap Harry just like she had three months ago, but her ex was ready. He once again threw up a silent protego shield. Just like James, Hermione broke her hand. She cried out in pain and a nurse from nearby came to help her just as Harry made his way out of sight.

Instead of returning to the Shrieking Shack, Harry apparated back to Bill and Fleur's house. He was going to give the two of them a piece of his mind. The young man landed smack dab on the beach and his feet sunk into the wet mounds of the sand around him. He was slightly irritated but moved onward. The house was getting closer in his view. 20 feet away. Then 10 feet. Then 5 feet. And now he was right in front of their door. Before he entered, Harry could hear Bill talking with someone other than Fleur. He figured it would have been a colleague from work so Harry went inside. Bill turned away to see Harry come inside, while Fleur looked up from the book she was reading on the table. The two of them appeared to be concerned that Harry was gone so long, but decided not to say anything. Harry then noticed who the guest was.

"Oh. I didn't realize you had company. I'll come back later."

"Oh stop it, Harry. You don't need to leave." Bill stated.

"Yes, I do. You have company, and I'm interrupting. So I'll leave now." Harry tried to walk away but the door was magically locked from behind him. "You do realize I can just break through this door, right?"

"Yes I do, but you could at least be nice to our guest here and stay."

"I'm not staying in the same room as her, Bill."

"Perhaps I should come back later …" A small voice said.

"No, Ginny, you don't need to leave. Harry is going to behave himself and act like a gentleman. Aren't you?" Harry was about to say something insulting but never got the chance.

"You 'ill be nice, 'Arry! Your anger is non-welcome 'ere. Listen to Bill!" Fleur demanded. The fire in her eyes was blazing in front of him and Harry knew it would be best to not try and argue with her.

"Yes, Fleur." Harry begrudgingly said.

"Thank you!" Bill exclaimed. "Now be quiet and let Ginny continue." Harry only nodded.

"Okay .. um .. I wanted to stop by and ask where Harry was." Ginny admitted.

"Well, I'm here as you can plainly see." Harry said sarcastically.

"Stop it, Harry!" Bill said. Fleur raised an eyebrow at the young man.

"Fine."

"Yes .. well .. I wanted to tell Harry that his mum is not doing well and he should see her soon."

"Wait. You've seen my mother?" Harry asked. Ginny nodded. "How the hell did any of my estranged family let you see her?"

"Estranged?" Ginny asked.

"You mean my darling father, sorry, ex-father, didn't mention that he disowned me after my fight with Greyback?" Harry angrily asked.

"No, I had no idea. I just assumed you were busy."

"I would be busy if I had a job. Then again you should have known since the rag of a paper you work for decided to slam me for being a horrible monster before the facts were posted!"

"STOP IT 'ARRY!" Fleur screeched. Her features were starting to become veela like and the fire in her eyes was more intense than before. "YOU 'ILL BE NICE TO 'ER!" Harry was genuinely scared now. He wisely shut his mouth at that point.

"No, Fleur, it's ok. Harry is right. I deserve that."

"You can't blame yourself, Ginny. We've been over this. You weren't responsible for getting Harry fired. It's Rita Skeeter's fault. Not yours." Harry made a mental note to get even with Rita Skeeter. He had forgotten that she was responsible for his possible affliction being leaked to the public.

"It doesn't matter. The paper I work for got someone fired, and it was over something so prejudiced before the facts were revealed. I still feel bad, Bill." The young redhead then turned to Harry. "I'm sorry the Daily Prophet made you out to be a monster without checking the facts. You didn't deserve any of that."

"Thanks, Ginny." Harry was slightly happy to hear this from Ginny, but he quickly squashed it down when he snapped back to reality. Ginny accepted his thanks with a smile and continued on.

"Alright then. Let's go back to why I came." Ginny then looked directly at Harry. "I know you aren't on the greatest terms with your parents, but you have to see her, Harry. Do you know what she's going through?"

"James Potter said she has an illness where she will eventually lose her magical core. The result will cause her to die. Is that close?"

"In a sense, yes. I know how bad this disease is, Harry. My uncle Fabian went through this same disease too. It's really horrible." At this mentioning, Bill's face grimaced. Harry looked to his friend with a concerned face. Bill had never mentioned this to him before. Was this why he was pushing Harry into going?

"What happened to him?" Harry asked.

"What you already know is true. The witch or wizard infected with this disease will lose their magical core and eventually they will die." Ginny paused for a moment before continuing. "What most people don't know is the infected will be in constant pain without treatments. Because the magical core disappears, it strains the organs and causes them to fail. Without the magical core, the body refuses to function." Harry was astounded by this news. He had no idea it was this bad. His anger had dissipated entirely.

"I've got to go." He said to the group quietly.

"Let me come with you." Ginny stated. It wasn't a question, but more like a casual demand.

"Sure." Harry said. The two of them headed outside the house to the apparition border and abruptly left. Harry and Ginny went back over to the receptionist desk once again.

"Hello. How can I help ... oh it's you." The receptionist said with some annoyance.

"Yes, it's me. I want access to Lily Potter's room please."

"Visiting hours are over Mr. Potter. You will have to come back in the morning."

"Miss, please let him see his mum." Ginny said. "He hasn't had any time with her since the rest of the family is always there. Can't you look the other way just once?"

The receptionist thought about it for a moment before magically unlocking the wards to the door. She said the same thing as last time where Lily Potter is in Room 12. As Harry and Ginny began walking down the hall, the redhead spoke to him.

"Why was she so hostile towards you?"

"When I saw her earlier, she asked me for James' autograph. I told her, in my own words, "No". She wasn't too happy with me after that." Harry said while sighing.

"Yeah, I can see why she's mad at you now."

"Why does everyone want James' autograph anyway? I've seen his matches. He's really not a good player. The amount of fouls he's caused is astronomical. I'm surprised he's still on the team, to be honest."

"He's popular, Harry. That's simply it. You either have it or you don't."

"Well, it does explain why he hasn't been benched yet. The public wouldn't allow it." Ginny laughed a little. The two of them finally arrived at the door and Harry began to get nervous. He wasn't nervous before because his family was there, but now that he was alone, he could finally have some time with his mum. Even though he was still on shaky ground with Ginny, he was glad that at least someone was there with him.

"Are you ready to see her?" Ginny asked.

"No. I don't think I ever will be." Harry admitted. "I did promise myself I would go in though." He took another moment to collect himself, and then finally opened the door. As expected, the room was dark. The only amount of light present was from the moon through the window and the small lights on the magical equipment that were stabilizing his mum.

Harry walked up to the medical bed that his mother occupied. Since he was close to her, the young man was able to see the amount of damage that was spreading. Lily's eyes seemed to be extremely tired from the amount of bags, her skin was paler than it normally was, and it looked like pieces of her hair was falling out. After staring at his mum, Harry began to realize that it was extremely quiet in the room and he began to panic. He needed something to distract him from only focusing on the damaged woman in front of him, but couldn't find anything to satisfy himself.

"Please say something." Harry demanded.

"What?" Ginny asked.

"Please say something. I can't ... I can't focus on anything but her suffering. I don't think I can be here." Harry said with a lot of anxiety. He wanted to run away as far as his legs could carry him but felt as if his shoes were 1000 pounds, and he was stuck in place. He wasn't even confined with magic at all. It showed how conflicted the man was at that time. Ginny had no idea what to say so she decided to say something positive.

"You don't need me to help you, Harry. You can do this."

"No, I can't."

"Yes, you can. She's still your mum no matter what. The only thing you need to do is talk to her like a normal person. You need to spend some time with her and then you can come back again later. Please don't waste this time by running away with your tail between your legs." Harry sighed once he realized she was right.

"I know. I know I need to, but her condition never really hit me until now. Before I came here, I only vaguely imagined what Mr. Potter was explaining about her health." Harry said. "I always thought he was over exaggerating like he normally does, but it seems I was wrong. She looks terrible, Ginny. Just look at her!"

Ginny looked over at Harry's mum. Even though the redhead girl did see her a few days ago, Lily Potter had only gotten worse since then. It wasn't her place to say what she felt at that time. Harry did not need to hear that it was that bad. Best thing to do was to dodge it.

"Don't focus on that, Harry. Focus on her!" Ginny said. "I'm going to stand outside the door to make sure you're not disturbed.

Harry nodded and then turned towards his mum as she left. He didn't really have a plan on how to start, but he did have some idea of what he wanted to say. After all, he had been anticipating this moment for some time now to tell his parents what he really felt about them, and this was just the right moment for one of them. Perhaps the other would hear it in time.

"I don't know what to say. I always figured we had more time, so I didn't bother trying to amend the broken ties between yourselves and me. Mr. Potter and I were close to resolving our differences when he told me about your illness, but all of that was thrown out the window. His bigotry and hypocrisy will be his downfall, and he will take you all with him. I came by to deliver the money to continue with your procedure, but Mr. Potter threw me out. Because of your husband's pride, you have to be the one to suffer. If you do somehow survive this disease, I hope for your sake that you leave him. I don't think you would, if given the choice, but I can dream.

I had a lot of things to ask before I knew about your condition, but I'll skip the other meaningless questions and focus on only one. Why didn't you treat me the same as James and Rose? You and Mr. Potter loved them both but had trouble accepting me for who I was. I didn't understand. I still don't understand. I don't think I ever will, but there's always that small part of me that will want to. It's as if I wasn't really your kid, and you both made sure of that quite often. Sirius was the only one who felt like a real parent to me, but you took that away too.

I know holding on to a grudge against you will hurt me later on, but at this moment, it doesn't bother me. I still appreciate the fact that you are my mother, and without you, I would have never been born. Sometimes I wonder if being born into this family is a blessing or not. You were never mean as Mr. Potter was, but you always felt more comfortable around your other kids. It's as if I was forced to stay with you, and you weren't happy about it, but you couldn't just abandon me and leave me on the doorstep of your jealous sister, so you had to keep me.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I may be sad about you possibly passing on, it won't affect me as hard as it would others. I will have the doctors begin the treatment tomorrow morning since I've already given them the money yesterday. Take care of yourself."

Harry reached the door and opened it carefully. Ginny was a little bit down the hall from Lily's room.

"You feel better?" She asked.

"I don't know exactly." Harry admitted. "I wonder if I'm truly doing the right thing."

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked.

"I stopped by yesterday morning to drop off the money for the doctors to begin the operation tomorrow."

"And that makes you confused?"

"In a way. Mum never did anything to make me feel accepted, but she wasn't a complete bastard like my father. I feel like I owe her for giving me life, but that's all." Ginny was astounded to hear this.

"I didn't realize it was that bad. I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault." Harry said as he started walking away from his mum's room. Ginny followed closely behind him but didn't say anything more. The pair made it to the front of the hospital to where the apparation point was. The receptionist was thankfully not there.

"Hey. Um. I know I've been a complete ass towards you, but I really appreciate you coming with me. You really didn't have to do that." Ginny smiled a little.

"It's okay. I'm glad I came too." She said.

"I wish things would have been different."

"What do you mean?"

"Things got worse for me once Sirius was thrown out of our lives. I never wanted him to kill Wormtail. It's as if he wasn't thinking rationally that night and acted on pure vengeance." Harry said.

"It's understandable, Harry. Sirius was angered because someone he thought was a close friend sided with Voldemort instead of doing what was right. He deserved some sort of justice no matter how it resulted." Harry was a little surprised by her response.

"You mean you don't despise Sirius for being a murderer?"

"No. He was a lot of things and seemed like a great guy from what your parents have told me, but he didn't seem evil to me. He was only a stubborn, scruffy and comical man."

Harry thought about it and then chuckled. "My parents said that I had a lot of his tendencies growing up. Maybe that's why they didn't care as much. They resented me because I was like Sirius a little too much. It's just as well because ..."

Harry paused and a sudden realization came into his head. His eyes grew to the size of saucers and he found that he couldn't breathe.

"I have to go. Now." Ginny noticed his sudden change in demeanor and grew concerned.

"What's wrong?" She asked with a little fear in her voice.

"I need to check on something. I'll see you later, Ginny." Harry said as he disappeared from the hospital and arrived in the apparition point inside the Ministry of Magic. The young man scrambled over himself as he came in because his legs wanted to carry him as fast as possible down the halls.

After picking himself up, the young man sprinted with incredible speeds down the main hall. No one was present since it was late at night which gave Harry a clear path without being interrupted. The elevators were in sight seconds later. Harry threw himself inside an unoccupied box and pressed the button for the second floor: The Department of Records. Once the door opened, Harry headed towards the data vault which was only a minute away.

"Can I help you, sir?" The receptionist asked as Harry approached the front desk.

"I need to access the file of Harry James Potter."

"May I ask who is requesting this information?"

"Harry James Potter." The receptionist gave the young man an odd look but instructed Harry to follow him down the hall. The vault was massive. If Harry wasn't given the proper guide he would have never located his records. The receptionist turned the corner and stopped. The magical cabinet was opened and the documents Harry required were now in view.

"Here you are, Mr. Potter. Please return the files and leave when you are finished." The man said as he left to go back the way he came. Once he was gone, Harry tore into the folder with all of his information. He came across his personal records within the ministry first.

"Ok let's see. Harry James Potter ... Auror specialist in the tracking of deadly dark wizards and witches ... abruptly discharged from his post when he was reported to have lycanthropy ... served the post for two years before discharged ... often known to have rash behavior ... This isn't going to help me." Harry said aloud.

The young man dug deeper into the files before coming across his birth certificate. He was scared to read the results. When he pulled out the paper, he noticed the two names on the form were James Potter and Lily Evans.

"Well, that's it then." He said as he began to dig through the rest of the file. Since he was already here, he might as well keep looking at the rest of his own file to see if there was anything special. The young man then turned the page and discovered that there was a copy of his birth certificate. Harry looked closer and realized that it was not the same as the original. As he read, Harry stopped breathing.

 _This Certificate Certifies That_

 _Harry James Black_

 _Was Born To Lily Potter (Mother) & Sirius Black (Father)_

 _On July 31, 1980_

Right there on the form was the signatures of Lily Evans and Sirius Black. Sirius Orion Black was his real father. Harry frantically went back to the first certificate and noticed that it listed James Potter as the adopted father and not the frantically threw the documents back inside the folder and ran. He didn't even get time to say goodbye to the receptionist. It only took five minutes for the young man to make it down to the apparition points, and he wasted no time disappearing to the one place he needed to go immediately: Gringotts Bank. If there was anything that Sirius had left behind for him, it would surely be in his vault. Ever since his uncle, no, biological father had died, Harry had avoided the vault even though he was asked to go at his earliest convenience. He never went because the pain would have been too much to bear.

The apparation point of Diagon Alley had no witches or wizards nearby, which was unsurprising since it was nearly 10:00 in the evening. The bank never closes, so Harry used this time to walk slowly and gather his thoughts as he walked. How could his parents never tell him? How could they do this? Why had James and Lily even consider adopting him in the first place? Sirius was HIS father and he should have lived with him! James Fucking Potter Senior had robbed him of a childhood, by denying him the chance to spend time with his real father! What about his mother? She had an affair with Sirius Black! Did James know about this? Was that why Mr. Potter didn't give Harry that much attention? Why didn't he care about him as much? It all made sense now! James must have known that Sirius and Lily had an affair, so he adopted Harry on purpose so Sirius would never be a parent. Harry was now blazing with anger! It's the only thing that made any sense, and Harry James Black was going to have revenge.

Harry walked into the bank and demanded to see his financial advisor, Griphook. The goblin at the front directed him towards the back rooms that were only used for the most wealthy of clients. One of the goblins made their way over to the room and asked him to wait patiently inside. Being patient was something Harry could not be right now, but he had no choice. There was no way he was going to cause a fit inside Gringotts. It would send the wrong message to his financial investor and his kind. About ten minutes later, Griphook the Goblin arrived into the room Harry was waiting in.

"Hello, Mr. Black." Harry was stunned.

"How did you know about that?"

"We goblins cannot reveal what is not known to their clients until they know it themselves. When you discovered your true last name is Black, the records in our bank have all changed to reflect your current name. Besides, I would think you would want to be a Black considering the Potters disowned you."

"That makes sense. Do you know why I am here?"

"Yes. You are over a year late for this appointment, Mr. Black. Please be punctual the next time you are summoned by the bank."

"I couldn't come here after Sirius died. I had just seen him get arrested, and I knew that he would be kissed soon after. There was no way I could have come."

"But you healed, Mr. Black. You stopped mourning and forgot to come by. We had sent several letters informing you to come in, but we never heard a reply back. If you wish to keep your holdings at Gringotts, you will come when you are summoned. Is that clear?" Griphook asked with a stern voice.

"Yes. It's clear."

"Good. Let's get on with the reading of the will." Griphook said. He walked over to his desk and pulled out a letter from inside the drawer. After opening it up, the goblin began to read that was inside.

"This is the final written testament for Sirius Orion Black as finalized on April 28th, 1996." Griphook began to read. Most of the will explained in detail what other people were getting, but when it came to Harry's section, the young man started to pay attention.

 _" … And finally, I leave Harry Potter a black box containing some of my most precious possessions and heirlooms. I know that my death will affect you the most my boy, but do not cry over me. I'm still the same old dog that you've known all your life, and I will always be there for you when you need me. Even though I never did get a lot of time with you, kiddo, I'm grateful for all of the memories we've shared. Remember what I've taught you, be mindful of those around you, and please do yourself a favor and get a proper girlfriend. You can't spend all your time hanging out with old geezers like me. I know you think Cho Chang is irresistible, but she's not your type, Harry. Look for someone better, because you deserve better. I love you, Harry, and I only want the best for you. One day we will see each other again, but until then, I want you to live. Don't hide in the shadows like you had during school. Don't become the outcast that your fellow classmates had made you. Be strong kiddo. You must show people who you really are, and if they will listen, they will respect you for it. Take care of yourself, Harry. Love always, Sirius."_

Griphook folded the will into his front pocket, and then pulled out the black box that was mentioned in Sirius' will. It didn't look very big, so Harry assumed it was shrunken.

"Here is the item you have received from Sirius Black. One black box containing personal possessions and heirlooms. You will need to expand it when you arrive at home. It is charmed to stay small until the right spells are performed."

"Thank you, Griphook." Harry said as he took the box in his hand.

"You're welcome, Mr. Black. Now please grab whatever you need from your vault should you need it. I have other clients to attend to, but I will assist you if you require my services any further. Good day." The goblin said as he began waddling away.

Harry didn't need to do any more business at the bank, so he left as soon as he could. It would take several minutes before he could make it back to the apparation point, so the young man took in the scenery in front of him. In no time at all, Harry found himself near the entrance and vanished back to the Shrieking Shack. Whatever was inside this box, Harry had no intention of waiting to find out. When the young man finally made it back to his bedroom, he expanded the box on his bed and disenchanted the spells that were attached for security purposes. Without hesitation, Harry opened the box and peered inside.

* * *

That's all I'm putting in this chapter, but I will be writing more and posting it when I can. I stopped writing my other stories for the time being because I wanted to focus on this. I feel the quality of the story should be more important than the quantity of the chapters presented within. Now I will address the comments that were left from the reviewers of my first chapter.

Triggbc: Thanks I appreciate it. I have a tendency to pair Harry and Ginny together in my stories, but I haven't truly decided if that's what I want to do in this one. There's still time for me to change my mind.

LiteratureSoccerEnthusiast: While I agree that getting revenge is great, I am not going to make Harry solely focused on only getting his due. The others will get what is coming for them, and I feel karma does play a lot into it. Also thanks for the praise.

Greyandmint: Thanks I really appreciate the praise. It makes me feel good that people like what I write.

Hinny FTW: Yes I agree that Harry could have defended himself more against Hermione, but I didn't want to make him seem like a physical abuser. He's in Slytherin and they aren't fighters. They use their words, determination, and abilities to get what they want, even if he only was shouting at the top of his lungs. He is childish, but it's only because he's not taking any more of this shit from anyone, including Ginny, but he is going to mature. Thanks for the praise of my writing. I like doing this for myself and others. It's good to hear that people like what I do.

Potterfan007: Yes that was the point. He matures eventually.

Kat183: I'm glad you're looking forward to more, and I hope you like this one as well.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** This story is 100% alternate universe and most, if not all, of the characters in this story are out of character as well. Also I don't own anything by J.K. Rowling and I am not trying to steal her characters, plots, or moments within the books that she has written. This is my own story and I also claim to not copy off of anyone else's work either in the process.

 **Chapter 3**

 _7 Months Later_

Harry Black, not Harry James Potter, or Harry James Black because of the removal of his middle name and last name several months ago, was in a stressful situation that was eating away at his subconscious. That stressful situation was Hermione Granger.

The girl was driving him crazy and not the kind of crazy that deals with being in love with someone. Ever since Harry had seen her at the visitation of Lily Potter, Granger had been bugging him for financial assistance. At first, Harry dismissed her pleas because he was still sore over her idiotic decision to have an affair. Then a few months had gone by and Harry changed his mind. The bastard kid may have been James', but since his brother was a complete asshole about not marrying her or refusing to pay child support in the future, Harry picked up the pieces and gave in. Harry gave Hermione around 100,000 galleons which he felt was more than fair and could sustain herself and her kid for quite some time while she worked. The rest of her pregnancy went smoothly and it only took 12 hours to deliver her kid in St. Mungos. Hermione had a girl, and she was named Rose Granger. Harry wanted to throw up. He really didn't want another Rose Potter in the world. Even though her last name was Granger, her father was a Potter, so she came from both sides of the family. Harry wondered from that day on if Hermione chose that name on purpose just to spite him.

The following week, James II demanded a blood test that would finally determine if he was the true father or not. During her pregnancy, Hermione had filed for many different appeals for James to pay child support for their kid. The Quidditch player had been able to get out of being obligated by the law due to his star power for a while, but his luck did run out. Hermione used her connections inside the Ministry of Magic to get a few Aurors to bring James II in, and a court case had gone under way. Now that Hermione had the upper hand, James had two options: give in and just pay Hermione child support, or to perform a blood test and dispute the relation. If he did choose the test however, and he passed, then Harry's brother would have to pay more support than what was agreed upon. James chose the test. Harry thought his brother was insane to even take such a gamble, but it turned out to be a blessing for Hermione. The test came back positive. James II was the father, and since he had decided to dispute the charges in the first place, his payment for child support had been raised. Harry thought it was some well deserved justice. Hermione felt the same.

After the court case, Hermione took her money, and her daughter, and started looking for a place to live. She hadn't been able to find anything in a short amount of time, so she went to Harry once again and asked if she could stay at his place while she looked. This is what was causing Harry a massive amount of stress and a headache. The owner of the house REALLY didn't want Hermione to live with him, but he was only considering it for the newborn so that she could have shelter. However, the young man also had a case for not wanting to help Hermione. This baby was not his, but it could have been if Hermione hadn't left him for James. Plus she called Harry an unfaithful cheat when he had never done such a thing in his life. After thinking for a few hours about the pros and cons, Harry informed Hermione that she could move in. Mother and daughter would have their own rooms, which meant they didn't have to share with Harry, and they could ask Harry's elf, Dobby, for anything they required.

Dobby used to work for the Potters but had left them a few months ago when Rose accused him of stealing her jewelry. Since James Sr. was a complete ass about the whole thing, he fired Dobby and instead got a new elf named Kreature. Harry had always taken a liking to Dobby, so he instantly hired him when the young man had heard about this. He was more than just a friend to Harry. When he was growing up, Dobby became a close friend of the boy. The only problem was Dobby constantly calling Harry his master. Harry did his best to stop this, but the title slipped through the cracks now and again.

Hermione and her daughter had been living with Harry for about three weeks now, and the host was starting to get the feeling that Hermione was taking advantage of his hospitality. For instance, Harry would ask Hermione if she had started looking for a house or flat, and she said she was, but Harry knew she was lying. His newfound abilities made sure of that. Beyond that, Hermione was still hung up on his brother. It's as if the past months of abuse and court hearings didn't do anything to change her mind. Harry would never understand this witch. She was crazy to think that James II would give in and marry her, but that's all she would talk about when given the opportunity. Finally, and Harry could never prove it, but it seemed like Hermione was bringing over strange men for one night stands. When he asked Dobby about it, the elf had been asked to not reveal anything by her. This really sent the young man over the edge. He wasn't mad at Dobby, but Harry did remind the elf that he was the master of the house and Hermione had no authority here. Dobby understood Harry and promised to not do it again.

It only took Harry a day later before he decided to put his plan into action. Using Dobby as his personal spy, Harry asked his friend to start reporting on everything Hermione was doing. The reports of her actions were staggering. Just like he thought, Hermione was not looking for any places to live. Her daily routine involved getting ready, reading, and then going out for several hours. When she did return, Hermione would invite strangers to his home and indulge in sexual activities. Now you may be wondering "How could Hermione do all this, and have time to raise her daughter?". She didn't have time. Dobby was the one taking care of Rose because Hermione said she would start being a mother when James would marry her. That was the final straw.

"Hermione, we need to talk." Harry said as he walked into his house one day after spending time with Bill and Fleur. He hadn't seen them in a while so it was great to catch up.

"I don't want to talk about finding a place to live, Harry. I swear I'm trying, but there's nothing I like!" She said. Harry's senses went into overdrive as Hermione fed him the bullshit excuse. She was definitely lying but he knew how to beat her.

"No that's not that it. Do you remember when the Daily Prophet leaked my possible werewolf disease to the public?"

"Why are you bringing that up?"

"Well if you had remembered anything from school, which you obviously didn't, you would know that if someone survives an attack from a werewolf, but is not bitten, then there is a chance that the survivor will pick up some of the traits. As it turned out, I did. Do you want to know which senses I picked up?" Hermione stiffened a little after hearing this. "No? Well don't worry I'll just tell you."

"One of the most obvious changes was that I have a particular craving for raw meat, even though I find it disgusting. My strength has also increased more than the average human, but not overly. My sense of smell can be overwhelming sometimes but I've learned to adapt over the last ten months. You'd be amazed at how far away I can smell someone or something if I focus hard enough. And finally I can sense when people are LYING TO ME because I can hear a person's heart elevate when they are nervous or scared." Hermione's eyes widened. "So I'm going to ask you one final time, Hermione. Have you ever looked for a place to live while you've been staying here?"

Hermione didn't say anything. Her silence said it all. But Harry could also hear her heart going into overdrive too.

"Uh huh. And are you going to stop bringing over strange men to my house?" She continued to say nothing. "And what about Rose? Do you even know where she is right now?"

"What I do with my daughter is none of your business Harry!"

"It is when she's staying at my house and her mother is too busy fucking every guy from here to Australia! Also, you never answered my question by the way. In case you were wondering, Rose is with her pseudo-father in law right now since I told Dobby to drop her off there!" Hermione's eyes widened again.

"You wouldn't dare Harry! You know I'm not allowed there since your brother warned me to never come back."

"Oh, I'm aware. But that didn't stop me from dropping her off." Harry said with a grin on his face as if to say "fuck you" towards his ex. Hermione scowled.

"How could you do that, Harry? I wouldn't do something like this to you!" Harry laughed.

"Are you joking, Hermione? You do remember that you're the one who cheated on me with James, got pregnant, and then begged me for cash like the desperate whore you are! So yes you would do something like this to me, because you already did, and in return, I'm kicking you out of my god damn house!"

"Oh yeah? And where is my stuff, Harry? Did you throw it all away in several dumpsters across London?"

"Oh I thought about it, but no. Your stuff is over with Rose." Hermione then quickly made her way over to the fireplace to floo to the Potter Manor, but before she did, Harry stopped her.

"Don't bother asking for any more help from me, Hermione. I hope you still have the money I gave you so you should be completely capable to find a place to live. As for Rose, be a responsible parent and take care of her. James is never going to marry you so get that fantasy out of your head!"

"Fuck you, Harry." Hermione said very loudly. She then went into the fireplace and flooed away.

"Damn that felt good." Harry said aloud. Now that she was out of the house, Harry turned his attention back to the box he received in the will from Sirius over half a year ago. He kept the box under his bed and opened it from time to time just to be reminded of the memoirs of his father. Sirius Orion Black was his biological father as well as the man who felt like a true father when compared to the guy Harry had been living with for most of his life.

James Potter Sr. had disowned Harry from the Potter family almost a year ago, and hadn't looked back. Not that Harry wanted him to anyway. He hadn't felt like he was a member of the Potter family since he was around seven years old. It had been around five months since Harry had seen the man, but that event was not a very pleasant experience to remember. Mainly because Sirius gave Harry full control of the Black Vault, the title of Lord Black (even though he never wanted to be addressed by that name), and the deed to 12 Grimmauld Place. Harry was required to settle the estate with Mr. Potter and it caused a major disruption inside the bank. Mr. Potter was given temporary control of 12 Grimmauld Place until Harry became of age, but this information was never revealed to the young man at all. James felt it was better to keep this information to himself and hoped Harry wouldn't bother trying to seize the property from him. When he found out, Harry attempted to sue his ex-father, and in retaliation, the elder Potter tried to strangle the newly appointed Lord Black. The goblins were forced to separate the two and kept them blocked by a magical barrier. They could see and hear one another but couldn't use any physical violence. The rest of the settlement went smoothly but James was required to pay a fine for violating the rules set in Sirius' will. Harry put that money into a trust fund for Rose and made it so her mother could never access the account.

When Harry was given the box from Sirius as part of his will, he knew the contents inside were priceless. Aside from the major holdings that Harry had already received, the remainder of the items in the box provided a look into Sirius' life. There were journals that detailed his time at Hogwarts and his friendship with Remus, James, Lily, Remus, and Peter, something called the Marauder's Map which Harry didn't find important, a custom-made sneakoscope, a necklace that belonged to Salazar Slytherin which Harry had worn ever since he got it, and a letter from Sirius. He must have read the letter a few dozen times by now, but he didn't care. This letter was Harry's only available connection to his father, and he treasured it more than any other gift he had ever received. The only items that were untouched by Harry were the journals. The young man hadn't read them yet because he was dreading the content that was written about Lily Evans. The information given in the letter already served its purpose of providing Harry anything he wanted to know. Maybe one day he would read the journals, but not any time soon. As he grabbed the letter the again, Harry started reading once more.

* * *

 _Dear Harry,_

 _If you are reading this letter then I am already dead, or your mother has changed her mind and decided to give you this. I know you've only known me as your godfather your whole life, but I am much more than that. Your mother and I have been keeping something from you ever since you were born, but it was something that we both never wanted to tell you until the time was right. If I am dead when you hear this information for the first time, then I can only say that I'm sorry I never told you myself. I, Sirius Orion Black, am your true father Harry. I am sure your face would have been pretty shocking to see right about now, but I am entirely Sirius about this. Trust me kiddo, I am._

 _After your brother was born, your parents went through a bit of a rough patch. My friend, James Potter, was not able to handle the responsibilities of being a new parent, and it caused many problems at home. Most of the time your mother came to live with me, while James stayed with Remus. Their fights may have been extreme, but Lily and James always forgave each other after a while. I had hoped the fighting would end over time, but it didn't. The time spent apart became more frequent and your mother and I got to know each other a lot better. Then one day, your mother and I ... well ... I'm sure you can figure out what I'm trying to say._

 _When Lily found out she was pregnant with you, she attempted to cover it up by saying that the baby was James' instead of mine. He believed her and they were happy, and I had to step aside and be happy for them. Since it would have made things complicated, wasn't allowed to see your birthing, but I vowed to always be there for you after that. It wasn't until you were around seven when James found out that you were not his biological kid, and the result was damning. Even though your mother and I consented to have this affair, James blamed me entirely for using my Slytherin silver tongue to seduce your mother. I swear to you that is not the truth. I love your mother, and I love you. While I did miss my chance to be with Lily long ago, I will never regret the time I had with her._

 _Life can be full of regret, and fulfillment Harry. I want you to take chances and make good choices. If you see an opportunity to make your life better, then please go after it. Learn from my mistakes and seize what you want before it slips away. This especially includes finding love, my son. If you feel there is no one that can make your life complete, keep looking. She will turn up eventually. Even though it may seem hopeless, do not despair. You do have my charm, after all, so seducing women should be no problem for you. Don't let your mother know I said this._

 _There's one last thing I need to say before I end this letter. Despite what anyone may say, I don't want you to ever think you were a mistake. I know your siblings may be harsh at times, and your parents may treat you differently than I ever would, but I will always be there for you and watching over you._

 _I love you son,_

 _Sirius Orion Black_

* * *

Harry always felt better after reading this letter. It didn't matter if it was full of advice or painted his pseudo-family in a bad light. Sirius wrote it and that's all the young man cared about. Harry hadn't shown this letter to anyone because he didn't feel comfortable with someone else knowing his family secret. It wouldn't do well for someone to spill this to the Daily Prophet, and the papers would slander him again. Harry remembered that he needed to get some well-deserved revenge on Rita Skeeter. It had been 10 months since he was smeared in the news, and he wanted Rita to suffer, but he still hadn't done anything yet. Then Harry remembered something important. Christmas was only two weeks away. Maybe he would send Rita a nasty little gift. He smiled a little at that. It didn't last though because something just donned on him.

"Oh shit. Christmas is two weeks away." Harry said aloud. "I should probably go purchase gifts."

Harry started to get his things together to go to Diagon Alley but stopped when he realized that there was something even more important going on tonight. He had a date. Sort of. He sort of had a date with a girl named Laura. It wasn't dinner and a movie like what normal dates typically consisted of, but he didn't care. It was cold out and getting coffee with someone was always a good excuse to get out of the house. Harry still couldn't believe that she had said yes. It was quite weird how the two of them met. Harry had to settle some legal matters with 12 Grimmauld Place in Gringotts a few months ago, where he saw her making a complaint about her ex-husband trying to take all the galleons in their vault for himself. Normally Harry would have just let this woman be because he didn't want to get involved, but he couldn't for some reason. It was as if his heart was becoming a magnet for this woman so he went right up to her. He asked the bank if she could use his goblin representative to get this matter taken care of, for which they did because he was a high profile client. The legal dispute was over in 5 minutes. Laura was really appreciative of what Harry did, and the two became friends. When they started getting familiar with one another, Harry could tell that there was definitely something there. At least he did. He wasn't entirely sure how she truly felt about him until a week ago when he gathered whatever courage he had and just asked her. Her face lit up and seemed really happy. That was all Harry needed to know.

Harry only had about 20 minutes before he was supposed to meet Laura, so he figured he should probably start getting ready. The man ran upstairs and started to look through his wardrobe selections for tonight. Should he dress casual or more formal? Well, formal was not the greatest of ideas since it was only coffee, and 100% casual was not his style either. Maybe a little business casual? No that won't do.

 _"Get a grip, Potter. No. Black! I'm going to need to get used to this last name. Ok, focus. Now it's just coffee. Coffee with someone you really like. Coffee with Laura."_ Harry thought before he pushed his nervous thoughts out of his head.

 _"Ok ok. What about this? Not entirely casual and not entirely formal. Maybe a t-shirt and button down on top? Yeah, that sounds good."_ Harry thought again. He started to grab his selected wardrobe, and then put it on, but then realized it didn't matter what he wore. It's winter and was bloody cold outside. Odds were he was going to just wear his jacket the entire time. With a sigh, Harry grabbed a long sleeve and his jacket. Sometimes his common sense just got up and left him, and this was one of those times. Since he was debating with himself for a while, the young man realized he only had 5 minutes to floo his ass over to the coffee shop. He cursed his indecisiveness and practically ran towards the fireplace. After grabbing the floo powder and pronouncing the location of the shop clearly, Harry was warped through a wall of fire to his destination.

The coffee shop was decorated from head to toe in Christmas decorations that expanded inside and outside. Harry always liked Christmas decorations because it always made him feel warm inside. No other reason. The nervous boy walked through the shop to try and find a table. After searching for a few minutes he was able to determine that there was one near the windows of the shop. Perfect! As he started moving to the table he noticed that there was someone who was about to collide with him and he tried to move out of the way but was unsuccessful. He accidentally knocked her to the ground.

"I'm so sorry miss. I was just trying to ... Laura?" Harry said with some surprise.

"Oh, so you're the jerk who pushed me to the ground, Harry?" Laura said with some anger. Harry looked a little scared after hearing her talk like that, but once she started laughing, he became calmer than he was a moment ago and laughed a little too. The two moved over to the table and sat down.

"It's good to see you, Harry. And look at you! You made it on time! You were worried for nothing." Laura said. The two had discussed how Harry was constantly late earlier that week, so that put even more pressure on him than normal tonight.

"Well, this is a rare circumstance, Laura. I should probably show up on time for this, right?" She nodded in agreement. The two began talking about anything they could think of, but there was something that was bothering Harry while he was talking to her. Laura kept looking at her watch a lot. This made the young man feel a little uncomfortable because he thought that maybe she was trying to get out of this date.

"Hey, Laura? I wouldn't normally ask this, but are you anxious to leave?" She was confused by this statement.

"What do you mean, Harry?"

"I've noticed that you have looked at your watch a lot while we've been talking. Is there something wrong?"

"Oh! No no I'm sorry I was just waiting for someone to come as well. They are supposed to join us tonight. I hope that's okay? I just thought he may want to come, and he was excited about it when I told him." Harry was starting to get nervous again.

"Yeah, that's fine. Who is he?" He said while lying through his teeth. He really didn't want anyone to disturb his date, and if someone else was to show up, it may make things a little awkward.

"Oh, he's the greatest. I don't think I've ever mentioned him before, but ..." Laura started to say before she saw who she was looking for. "Oh, there he is now!"

Harry turned around to find the bloke who was interrupting his date but couldn't find anyone in the crowd. Since he couldn't find him, Harry returned to looking at his drink while sipping it slowly.

"Okay now that he is finally here! Took you long enough! Harry, I would like you to meet James. My boyfriend." Harry was shocked by what she was saying. She had a BOYFRIEND? How did this not come up in their conversations over the last few months? Great. This date was going down the tubes quickly and Harry wanted nothing more than to get out of there, but he decided to be nice and introduce himself.

As if anything couldn't get any worse, Harry turned towards the boyfriend and finally saw who he was. The instant he did, Harry's eyes filled with rage.

"Well well. What do we have here?" Harry's step-brother James Potter II said while giving his younger step-brother a smile that was also sneering at him.

"What the HELL are you doing here, James?" Harry yelled.

"I'm on a date with my girlfriend, Black. What are YOU doing here?" Laura was extremely confused now.

"Wait. You two know each other?" She asked.

"Unfortunately we do, Laura. The guy you're dating is my half brother, James Potter. The most disgusting man whore on the entire earth." Laura's eyes bulged out of her sockets.

"Well since you're doing introductions, Harry, I might as well give one of my own. Laura, this is Harry Black. Formerly known as Harry Potter. The poor soul in front of you is the worthless brother of mine I have been telling you about. He's always been jealous of me and has stolen a few of my girlfriends in the past. I'd get far from this chap if I were you. He's nothing but trouble."

"Oh please, James. Drop the act. You and I know damn well that you're the sack of shit that has stolen MY girlfriends and I haven't done anything of the sort." Harry then to Laura. "Did you know he had an affair with my ex, got her pregnant, and then tossed her out on the street when he found out?" Laura's eyes went wide again. Apparently, she didn't know. James simply scoffed off his claim that he had ever done such a thing and went back to insulting Harry.

"Well, Black, I can see your attitude and exile from the family has made you into the bitter bastard that you are." James said before he looked at Laura. "This is the Harry you've been telling me about? The really nice and sensitive guy? You're joking right?"

Laura shook her head and said "No." James started laughing pretty loudly.

"Oh man, this is priceless. It seems that luck is on my side tonight. Not only do I get to go on a date with my girlfriend, but I get to humiliate my pathetic brother in front of everyone! What are the odds of this happening?"

"Oh shut the fuck up, James! You planned this on purpose didn't you!" Harry shouted. The patrons in the shop started to notice the conversation they were having and were getting nervous.

"Maybe I did and maybe I didn't, Black! Serves you right for trying to put the moves on my girlfriend in the first place!" Laura then turned to Harry.

"Harry? Did you really think this was a date? I thought I told you before that I have a boyfriend."

"I think I would remember a detail such as this before asking you out, Laura!" Harry screeched. The other customers were definitely getting restless now. One of them went to the management from behind the angry group, and asked if they could throw out the one who was yelling. The manager nodded and then made their way over to the angry group of three.

"Excuse me. I've noticed you three are disturbing the other customers in my store. If you can't calm yourselves now, then I am going to have to ask you all to leave."

"Don't bother! I'm leaving. Thanks for the worst date I've ever had Laura." Harry said as he began to storm out. Before he left, the angry almost twenty year old left one final statement.

"I'd be careful if I were you, Laura. I wasn't lying when I said that this sack of shit got my ex-girlfriend pregnant. Oh and James, Hermione is expecting to hear from you soon. You two do have a kid that you're not paying child support for!" As soon as the other customers heard this, their mouths were opened wide. James' popularity was, for once, plummeting to the ground, but this did nothing to make Harry feel better. The unfortunate bastard left the store and began walking down the long road.

 _"How could I have been so stupid? I should have known this was too good to be true! WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO ME?! AM I NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR ANYONE?!"_ Harry screamed inside his head.

The anger inside of Harry was reaching to new levels of pure hatred with each second that passed. He was barely keeping it together as he started heading into a nearby park that was covered in a layer of snow. There was no one around so the boy decided to take his anger out on something. With the flick of his wrist, Harry started to create a bunch of snowmen that looked incredibly similar to his half brother, half sister, and the bastard who dared to call himself his father for almost two decades. Harry's eyes glowed red as he gripped the wand in his hand so tight that small bits of magic were escaping the cracks on the outside.

The next moment was something that could only be described as being brutal.

Harry targeted each snowman with a unique spell that was not repeated for any other. In a matter of seconds, cutting curses, blasting curses, fire spells and even unintended instances of accidental magic struck the poor defenseless snow dummies. Heads were cut off, the bodies were slashed on almost all of the major limbs, and if there was anything left standing, Harry stomped his boots on top of the defenseless mounds of snow. There was nothing left standing, but that's exactly what Harry wanted. When all of the snowmen were slain, Harry began forming a statue of ice that had all of his family carved on it. The statue was pretty tall and Harry wanted nothing more than to smash it into bits. His wand was raised and the fury behind his magic was about to show when he was stopped by a voice.

"Harry? What's going on?" Harry groaned a little as he turned around. He knew who that voice belonged to. Even though he was normally excited to see her, this was not the best time.

"Hey, Ginny." Harry said. "I'm uh ... well ... I'm releasing some anger."

"I can see that. Nice job with the snowmen. You didn't get James' nose right through. It's not long enough, Harry." She said while joking around a little. Despite the fact that Harry was still pissed off, he somehow started laughing. Ginny laughed at her own joke too but not as much as Harry. He felt better after that.

"How are you always able to find me, Ginny? I don't understand how you can always show up whenever I'm not having a great day."

"What can I say, Harry? It's a gift. It's as if I was made to be your guardian angel. Since I'm here, I'm guessing that there's something you need help with. Right?" Harry nodded. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I was on a sort-of date with someone and it turns out that not only does she have a boyfriend, but it's my slime-ball of a brother. We fought inside the coffee shop and the manager asked us to leave. I stormed out while James and his girlfriend remained behind." Ginny was slightly hurt when she heard that Harry was on a date, but her pain quickly turned into anger as she realized that James had ruined Harry's night.

"Is he still there?"

"Who, James?"

"Yes. Is he still there?" Ginny asked. Her tone was a little ferocious.

"I think so. Why?"

"Oh, no reason. I'm just going to slap your brother back to the dark ages. That's all."

"Wait, Ginny!" Harry exclaimed as he reached out and grabbed her arm. She stopped in place. "Please don't. He's not worth it."

"Harry you can't let your brother get away with this! It's obvious that he did this on purpose and wanted to make you feel humiliated. Now I'm going to go back there and slap him!" Harry still didn't let go of her arm.

"Ginny don't. My brother is only going to retaliate harder if something like this happens. It's not something I want either of us to get involved in."

"Let go of my arm, Harry." Ginny said with some fury behind her voice. She gave him an intense stare to go along with it. Harry let go of her arm. "Now I'm going down there to slap James. Whether or not you come with me is up to you." She said while heading back towards the coffee shop. Harry begrudgingly followed after her. If there was one thing that the young man preferred not to get involved with, it was Ginny Weasley's wrath. He had unfortunately discovered this the hard way over the 5 months that they had been friends.

It was weird for Harry, at first, to accept Ginny as a friend considering his rule on not associating himself with friends or lovers of James and Rose. He was extremely hesitant to even get involved with this girl at all since she also caused him a lot of grief at Hogwarts. What really changed Harry's mind about Ginny was the times she had gone with him to visit Lily Potter in the hospital. His mother was placed in a comatose state so that the healers could determine if the treatment Harry had paid for was working or not, but that was around 6 months ago and she was still in the coma. The only solace was that Lily was not dead. After the first visit, Harry felt that having Ginny there made him a lot more relaxed than before. Then one day, Harry admitted to her that he was glad to have her around, and the two officially became friends.

Ginny was extremely happy that she and Harry were burying the hatchet and starting over again. She still regretted everything she did to him, and vowed that James would not influence her decisions like he did a few years ago. Harry was glad too because he misjudged her completely. While in school, this girl seemed to be just a shallow floozie that leeched to James like a welcomed parasite, but as of now, his opinion had changed. He discovered over time that she was really down to earth, creative, smart, a bit feisty, had an infectious joyful personality, and it did help that she was beautiful in Harry's eyes too. He didn't know exactly when he started having feelings for the redhead, but he was now certain that he did want a relationship with her. There was only two big problems that were standing in his way of asking her.

The first, and probably the most important issue, was her family. As he said before, the Weasleys didn't care for Harry that much and they found that James or Rose were better children than he was. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley never said anything bad to his face, or even behind his back, but Harry could tell that they were uneasy about his presence. Ron was always going to hate Harry based on the amount of worship he gave James, so there was no reason why the young man would ever want to make amends. The twins were indifferent, but like their parents, they weren't comfortable around him either. Harry assumed it was because he was sorted into Slytherin. Charlie was never around that much, but whenever he did come by, he always gravitated towards Rose. Harry wondered if the two ever did or were currently having an affair. Rose never talked about her marriage to anyone, but Harry could see that it was far from perfect. Plus his vicious sister would do anything to get what she wanted. Harry wouldn't have blinked if she did end up having an affair behind her husband's back. Percy did agree with Harry choosing a career in the Ministry of Magic at first, but then decided it was best that he left considering he was now a half breed. Harry called him a racist pig after that. Bill Weasley was the only person who Harry even bothered to try to befriend considering he was nothing but nice to him from the start. It also helped that his wife Fleur was a great friend of his as well from their time together in Harry's fourth year thanks to the Tri-Wizard Tournament fiasco. But that was a story for another time.

The second issue was that Harry was afraid of getting his heart broken again. No one could blame him for feeling this way since Hermione's affair came out of nowhere. He also had a problem of having a relationship last. His other dates in the had either been stolen by James or frightened away by Rose. Harry thought that having someone who could stand up to both of his monstrous siblings was going to be a godsend, and the only person he knew so far that could handle either of them was Ginny. It's funny. Harry would never go after an ex-girlfriend of one of his friends, but he had no problem with taking an ex away from his step-brother. Even though he never wanted it to sound mean, Harry was anticipating the moment when James would be humiliated by one of his exes by going out with his brother instead. It would hurt his massive ego, and Harry would savor every possible second of his suffering.

The coffee shop was only a few feet away and Harry was feeling anxious. He could be brave when he needed to be, but going in there and slapping the shit out of his brother was something he would never imagine doing. Ginny didn't even seem phased by this idea. It's as if she would never feel embarrassment for doing something so violent in a public place. The two of them were now inside the shop and Harry led the way to try and find James and Laura. They weren't there. Harry was counting his lucky stars that he did not have to face his brother again, but he would never admit it. After breathing a sigh of relief, Harry looked at Ginny.

"They should have been here because this is where I left them. I'm guessing Laura took off and then James closely followed behind with his tail between his legs." Harry said. He had a small smile on his face.

"He got lucky. When I see him again, he is going to pay." Ginny looked up at her friend. She indicated that she wanted to leave and they both began to head out.

"I still don't see why you won't fight back, Harry. James isn't as ruthless as you make him out to be. As soon as you hurt him, his courage disappears, and he runs away like a little boy." Harry made a mental note to save this piece of information for later.

"It's not that I don't want to hurt him, Ginny, because believe me I do. I just would rather avoid him and my sister if at all possible. Every time I see them, I am reminded of all the things I had to go through. It just makes it easier to be out of their way." She stopped going down the street and made Harry stop as well.

"Harry, you have to stand up to him. I know how much he's hurt you, at least in school, and I won't sit by and let you take that kind of abuse from him any more." Ginny said with a sad face. "You deserve to be treated better from him. You deserve better from me too."

"Don't say that." He said while pulling her into a hug. "I know you feel bad, but there's no need. I forgave you a while ago and I still forgive you now. When you came to me months ago to apologize, I hated you. But in the time I've gotten to know you, I haven't regretted it at all. You have changed for the better, Ginny. You've also changed me. You shouldn't be trying to focus on what was done in the past, but rather how you can move forward."

"But that's the thing, Harry, I don't think I can. I should have realized that James was a prick from the beginning, but I didn't see it until it was too late."

"It's behind you now, Ginny. Now come on. Let's get out of this weather." Harry said as he led the two of them down the street to the apparation point. Ginny tried her best to move on in the mean time. The two of them finally arrived at the site where the redhead spoke first.

"I guess this is where I leave you." She said.

"You don't have to. In fact, I was hoping for some company right about now. We could do something together, if you're interested?"

"That sounds nice. What did you have in mind?" She asked with a smile.

"Maybe dinner … uh … that is … dinner … with me … I mean we could have dinner." The young man tried to say confidently but it came out as nervous as hell. Ginny laughed.

"Are you saying that you want to have dinner together?" She asked with a sly grin on her face.

"Yes." Harry stated confidently this time.

"Hmm ... if I didn't know any better, Harry, I'd say you were asking me out on a date."

"I am." Ginny was smiling on the inside and the outside.

"Then I accept, Mr. Potter. Where are we going tonight?"

Harry really wanted to wince because he was called a Potter, but the man did his best to hide his discomfort. He really hoped his companion didn't notice. The young man suddenly had a crafty idea that he wanted to take advantage of.

"I know just the place." He grinned.

The pair then apparated away. When they arrived, Ginny realized the two of them appeared only a few blocks away from where they were standing.

"Was that really necessary, Harry?" She asked while laughing.

"I thought it'd funny. Come on let's go inside."

"Yes let's."

He took her arm and guided her over to the front where the host was. After being directed to somewhere in the middle of the restaurant, the two sat down and began talking.

"Hey, Ginny, I just realized something. Ever since you talked to me in my office months ago, we never went out for coffee. We seemed to have skipped that and gone directly to dinner."

"Are you saying you want to just get coffee instead?"

"No." He said smiling. "I like this arrangement better."

"Me too." She smiled back. Since Harry was irritated earlier because Hermione had lied to him, he was grateful that Ginny wasn't lying at all.

The pair spent some time looking over their dinner options, and selected something about 5 minutes later. The two of them spent a lot of time talking about anything, everything, and nothing while waiting for their food. Then Harry had something of a revelation go off in his head.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did." She teased. He snickered then got serious again.

"No, I'm serious. Can I ask you something? It's a little personal."

"Yeah ask away."

Harry felt a little uncomfortable because he didn't want to ruin the good time they were having, but he needed to ask the next few questions in case what he feared turned out to be true. His senses were in full gear again and he was ready. He had a pretty good idea that she wouldn't lie to him, but it was better to detect a lie than to not.

"I know we've only been here for a short time, and our date isn't even over yet, but I wanted to know if we could go out again? I'm really enjoying the time we're having."

"Yes of course. I'd be insulted if you didn't ask, Potter." She said and then stuck her tongue out. Harry cringed again after hearing his former last name. She seemed to have noticed that but didn't get to ask.

"I need to let you know something, Ginny. I really like you." She was about to reply but couldn't. Harry asked her to wait.

"I really like you. I do. But I have two big problems I need help with if we are going to keep seeing each other. The first issue is obvious. I'm worried that if we get into a relationship it won't last. I'm tired of trying to find someone I like, and then they leave me a few weeks later because of my siblings. They'll either leave me for James, or be frightened by Rose and run away screaming. It's been this way for years and I don't want it to be that way anymore." She put her hand on his.

"Harry, I'm not intimidated by Rose. She has nothing on me and couldn't hold that against me. I'm also certainly not going to hook up with your brother. I don't want to go down that road again because I know where it leads. I promise I'm not going to run away screaming or run into another man's arms. If you want to be in a relationship with me, then I won't leave."

"Thanks, Ginny. I'm really glad you feel that way." He said with a stupid grin on his face. "Now here's the second issue I need to bring up: your family. The only ones who do like me are Bill and Fleur."

"I don't think that's true, Harry. I mean, Percy, yeah, because of your altered genes, but I don't think anyone else would mind if we were seeing each other. Also, it doesn't matter what they think anyway. The only opinions that matter are yours and mine." He sighed.

"I can't agree with you on that right now, but maybe I can have dinner with your family sometime? Maybe we can clear the air on whether or not they like me. Also, they can determine for themselves as to whether or not I'm worthy of dating their daughter or sister."

"Worthy of dating me? You haven't even asked me to be your girlfriend yet, Mr. Potter." She teased.

Harry cringed again. He knew it was only a matter of time before she asked what was wrong, but he wanted to distract her for as long as possible. The best way to start was by asking a simple question.

"Well when you put it that way, Weasley, I guess I have no choice. Ginny, will you please be my girlfriend?"

"I accept. See that wasn't so hard, Harry."

"Yeah, I guess not." He said while still smiling.

Dinner was served and the two young adults ate their fill all the while carrying on talking as if nothing was bothering them. When their plates were cleared, they decided on dessert and coffee. Now that they had some time remaining, Ginny took the opportunity to strike.

"Can you tell me what's bothering you, Harry?"

"There's nothing bothering me." He said trying to deny what the issue was.

"Don't give me that, Harry. While we've been talking, I noticed you've been flinching whenever I mention your name. Why?"

"Well … I uh … you see …" He stopped when he realized what was going on around him. The magical gods must have been smiling at him for a moment because he was interrupted by a loud patron on the other side of the room. It wasn't just that he was loud, but he caused the entire staff to turn towards him. Ginny noticed it too and began wondering what was happening. Harry wanted to hear what was going on so he tuned out the other sounds around him.

"No! This is unacceptable! My wife just woke up from a coma and this is her favorite restaurant! You will bring her some more ..." Harry tuned out a little after hearing the gist of it.

 _"Someone's wife woke up from a coma? I can understand his need to treat her to something she likes since she's been out for so long, but does he really need to make a scene?"_ Harry thought.

"No! I demand you bring me the manager! Do you know who I am?"

"What the hell is his problem?" Ginny quietly asked me. Harry shrugged his head in response.

 _"Who is this asshole anyway? I was just trying to enjoy a date with Ginny, when this dickhead starts making it uncomfortable for everyone inside. I don't care what his issue is. You don't yell at the top of your lungs when things don't go your way."_ The young man thought.

Harry couldn't stand there any longer and let the staff get treated that way so he got up and walked over. The young man could hear Ginny give him words of encouragement (give 'em hell) in the background as He left. The boy turned the corner and finally arrived at the table in question. There was a manager and two staff members blocking the view of the family in question so he made his way around.

"HEY!" He shouted getting everyone's attention. "Could you please show some decency and shut up? I don't care what the issue is. You don't ..." Harry stopped when he realized who was at the table.

Sitting in front of him was his estranged family. Rose, Michael, James Jr., Hermione, James Sr. and Lily Potter were all present. This wouldn't have bothered him that much if it were any other day, but no one told the young man that his mother was out of a coma. Why did they not tell him? Didn't he have a right to know? She's his god damn mother too!

Without continuing his sentence, Harry stormed off. He went back to his table and saw Ginny sitting exactly where she had been a moment earlier. The young woman could tell something was wrong already, but the look on her date's face gave a clear sign that something bad happened.

"We need to go. Now." Harry insisted.

"What? Why? What's going on?"

"Ginny, I don't have time to explain. We need to go." Harry said with his teeth grinding a little from the amount of anger coming off of him.

Ginny was scared by what was happening. She had only seen Harry extremely mad once, and the anger had been thrown at her from her own doing. Without trying to escalate the situation, Ginny grabbed her things and Harry left the money on the table. The pair were just about to walk away when some shouting pulled them back.

"HEY! YOU THINK YOU CAN COME IN HERE AND RUIN THIS NIGHT, YOU LITTLE SHIT? WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HERE?!" James Sr. exploded on to the young adults. Harry wasn't phased by his fake father's nasty remarks, but Ginny was.

"So I'm a little shit am I? Yeah sure! I'm the little shit that saved your wife by the way you fucking dick! Had I known that any of you were going to show up, I wouldn't have come at all! I'm here because I was on a date! Not that it's any of your business anyway asshole."

"Ha! A date? That's rich, Harry. What kind of moron would ever want to date you? After what happened with Hermione, and now Rachel apparently, you really think anyone would be interested in you?"

"Mr. Potter stop! Don't talk to your son that way!" Ginny screeched at him. James was confused. Why would she be here? He took a moment and drew the dots together.

"Wait. You were on a date with him? Him?! What's wrong with you, Ginny? Do you know what kind of person this guy is?"

"Don't you FUCKING DARE talk to her like that! I don't care what you say about me, but I swear to god ..." Harry then paused very briefly and grabbed James by the collar and pulled him close.

"... if you so much as GLANCE at her like that, I will ..." Harry didn't get to finish his thought because James retaliated with a punch straight to his face. The fighting continued for a minute before both men were pulled apart. Ginny had to almost stun Harry to make him stop, while Rose and James Jr. were having a difficult time restraining their father.

"THAT IS ENOUGH!" Lily Potter said as she came towards the ruckus. "Stop fighting now, James!" The elder Potter consented and backed away. Harry had to use all of his willpower not to continue beating the crap out of James Sr.'s face but stopped anyway. He fell back into place next to Ginny.

"Rose and James, go take your father home now. Michael and Hermione, you're welcome to come over to the manor or you can go back to your homes. It's your choice." Lily demanded.

Even though she hadn't addressed Harry, the boy could feel his hairs sticking up as if he was the one getting punished. While passing him, Harry could feel the eye daggers that were being thrusted at him from everyone who was asked to leave by Lily. In order to make up for their disruptive behavior, Lily paid the bill and left a nice tip. She headed towards the exit but asked Harry to come with her. Ginny decided to give them some space, so she said goodbye to Harry and told him she'd be waiting back at Bill's place. The pair walked down the street in a deserted area before talking.

"Why did you come here, Harry?"

"Oh, so you remember my name now? Are you sure it's not _Harold_ or _Henry_?" The young man sneered.

"I think I would know my own son's name, Harry." She shot back.

"You could have fooled me! You've called me the wrong name for years! Oh but I guess it makes sense since you were on a medication binge for the last few years." He retaliated. "So you're awake now huh?"

"Obviously, Harry."

"How long have you been awake?"

"Two weeks."

"TWO WEEKS!? You've been awake for two weeks and didn't tell me?!"

"It's not my responsibility to alert you of anything, Harry. You should keep in touch with us!" Harry glared at her as if she had grown a second head.

"Now if you can restrain yourself for a moment, I did ask you a question young man. Why did you come here?"

"For your information, I was on a date and happened to hear my bastard of a stepfather start yelling and screaming like the child that he is. Of course, you should know that since you married him!" Lily slapped him in response.

"DO NOT talk about your father that way, Harry! I thought we raised you better than that!"

"He is NOT my father! The man known as James Potter disowned me as his son a while ago, and it doesn't matter anyway. It turns out that he isn't even my father at all! Sirius Black is!" Lily paled.

"How do you know about that? Who told you this?"

"No one. I discovered this in my personal file inside the Ministry of Magic one day, after realizing that I have a lot in common with Sirius Black and very little with James Potter. Imagine my surprise when I find two birth certificates inside that says Sirius Black was my father and James Potter is my adopted father. So explain that, Lily!"

"Lily? Not Mum?"

"I'm disowned, remember? Also, why would I consider you my mother anyway? You and Mr. Potter never tell me that Sirius is my real father, and the rest of the family treats me like the black sheep of the bunch because it turns out that I'm the bastard child of Sirius Black! I'm sure they all knew! It would explain why James and Rose were so horrible to me over the years, and why Mr. Potter was such a dick to me, and why you were always distant! Who am I exactly, Lily? Am I really your son or was I just stolen from Sirius by you?"

"Of course you're my son. We may not have the greatest of relationships, but you are indeed my son."

"Yeah, that's putting it mildly ... Did you know I was the one who paid for your surgery? You should considering the mighty Potters are now reduced to commoners!"

"What are you talking about? James paid for my surgery, not you! I don't know where you got these lies, but no, we aren't poor at all!"

If looks could kill, then Harry would have murdered everyone within a 10 mile radius. The Potters weren't poor? James paid for the surgery? What the hell was that man thinking! Did he really think Harry wouldn't have figured it out? Whatever the reason, Harry was going to confront his ex-stepfather soon and beat the truth out of him, and then for good measure beat the living shit out of him too.

"Oh yeah? Well, guess what, Lily? Your lying scum of a husband came to me months ago asking for money to pay for your last surgery because the Potters had run out of money trying to pay for your treatments! Then the bastard tries to take credit for paying for it?! I don't care if you don't believe me, Lily, but it is the truth. Go ahead and ask Mr. Potter sometime and see if he's lying! Then maybe, JUST MAYBE, you'll start to understand what a huge mistake you made by marrying him."

Harry was starting to lose control and realized things were only going to get worse if he continued this conversation. The best thing to do was to leave.

"We're done here, Mrs. Potter. Whatever you have to say to me doesn't matter. You chose not to tell me about waking up, you chose to believe the lies your husband spews, and you chose to hide the identity of my real father from me for almost twenty years. We may be related by blood, but that's all. I'm not a Potter anymore thanks to Mr. Potter disowning me. So go enjoy your life with your two horribly spoiled children, your bastard grandchild from Hermione, and the worthless piece of slime that you married. Don't contact me. I have no interest in what you have to say. Go fuck yourself and have a fan-fucking-tastic life!"

Harry then stood up and apparated far away from his ex-mother. Lily was shocked. Was anything that Harry said true? Would James really lie to her like that? The woman had no idea what to believe. The only sensible thing to do was confront her husband, and her kids, but she would wait until tomorrow. There was already enough drama for one day.

Mrs. Potter sat in the park for a long time. She didn't know what to do about the situation at hand. She should have told Harry from the beginning, and she knew that. That night with Sirius Black changed everything, and she regretted it immediately. Lily was vulnerable. She felt her marriage was falling apart, so she turned to the one person who knew their situation best, but it only caused more problems.

Sirius begged Lily to leave James, but she refused. That's when he told her the truth. Sirius fell in love with Lily from the beginning of school but stood aside to make James happy. It was something he always regretted. It should have been him. No matter how supportive he was, Sirius always felt that James was never the right person for Lily. Oh sure they got along great, and there was a spark there, but that's all it was. Just a spark. There was never a flame or a burning passion, but Lily didn't see it that way. Lily was convinced that James was the love of her life, and she wanted nothing more for their marriage to work. Sirius was heartbroken but let her do what she thought was best.

Lily had to lie about the baby in order to keep her marriage. When she went back to James about a week later, she revealed to him that she was pregnant, but said nothing about who the father was. Of course, James was overjoyed about having another kid since the birth of James II was the best day in his whole life. When Harry was born, Lily extracted some of her husband's blood when he was asleep. She used a ritual on her son to replace the DNA of Sirius Black and put James' in it's place. It was painful for Harry, but it had to be done.

When Harry turned 7 years old, James discovered the truth. Sirius had stopped by when he thought neither James or Lily were home, but they both were. James discovered Sirius and ordered him to leave or else he would call the Aurors. Sirius refused and demanded that he take his son with him. That's when the spells came in full force. Sirius was wounded but managed to get away, while Harry unfortunately got hit by one of James' spells in the head. James didn't feel bad about it, but did _Obliviate_ Harry's mind so he wouldn't remember about Sirius or that he got hurt.

Lily was afraid when James learned the truth. There was no one who could save her now. She was at the mercy of her husband and his wrath, but it wasn't enough for James. After slapping her a few times, he threatened to leave her but Lily begged him not to. It took a few days, but James agreed not to file for divorce. The marriage was strained after that, and they both knew it. The couple tried counseling but it only improved things by a little bit. Lily was forced to give Harry harsher treatment than their elder son. It was what James wanted, and she had to give in. In order to distract her husband, Lily needed something to keep James happy, so she decided to have another child. Her husband's attitude did get better and she was grateful.

After the birth of Rose Lily changed. She became just like James in a way. The only way to keep herself safe was to treat Harry differently. It disgusted her at first to reprimand her son more than any of her other kids, but in time, she got used to it. That didn't mean she didn't care. It was tough love as she called it.

When Sirius was taken away, James went to watch. Lily was forbidden to go or else James would hurt Harry. She consented and stayed home for the day while the execution proceeded. When Sirius was dead, Lily could feel it from miles away. It was as if a part of her was lost forever and would never return. James came back in a happy mood that day. Lily was outraged that he could be so insensitive, but it didn't matter to Mr. Potter. He got Lily while Sirius got the death penalty. To him and his sick mind, it was justice.

Mrs. Potter watched as Harry suffered from Sirius' death. She wanted to tell him the truth, but it would only hurt her son more, and she wouldn't allow herself to do that. When Harry moved out of the house, she cried herself to sleep that night, but only when James was in a deep sleep. Soon enough she found herself unable to care about Harry's issues again, and focused her attention back to James II and Rose. It was the only way to block out the pain. It was the only way to keep her busy. It was hell.

Lily thought about everything that happened for almost an hour before she decided to head on home. She needed answers and the best place to start was with her family. Whether or not she could fix her relationship with her son was completely up to him. She would do everything she could if he'd let her, but Lily feared it would never be enough. The only thing to do was try and see what the future would bring.

* * *

 **A/N:** Hey I'm dropping an update. There's only one more chapter to this story, but I'm going to write out multiple endings. I'll probably post them all at the same time so the last chapter and endings are not left hanging in the wind. Now let's respond to some comments.

kat183: Thanks I like the twist too. I'm having a lot of fun with this story and it makes me feel great to know that others like it too.

athenakitty: Yes he is Harry Black now. I didn't want to call him Lord Black because that's just not who Harry is. I didn't write anything yet about Hermione's parents because I made her a little insane in this story. In her mind, James is the only one for her, so screw everyone else.

nesciamema: Well as you can see I still haven't done anything about the Daily Prophet yet. I will do it before the endings I promise but it will happen nonetheless.

Greyandmint: Yeah I can understand that. I didn't want them to be mean/harsh but they wanted the best for Harry and decided to meddle in his life. I'm going to give them some slack in the next chapter.


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